Hi! Remember my friends who have the tropical garden here at the beach? Well this year their garden has been commandeered by wildly hugely overwhelming volunteer sunflowers!
Seems they did not dead head last year's sunflowers early enough. ALL of the sunflowers in their garden are from last year's seeds.
Now I love sunflowers, so I think it's wonderful. My gardener friends aren't quite so happy, although they do have lovely lilies, a lime tree, a big pot of herbs, and a tiki or two---but no tropicals. Yet.
I love the corners of cool blues, greys, pinks they've added.
This sunflower, I think last year's seed envelope called them Russian Giants, has to be 10 to 12 feet tall and growing madly each day. The stalk is thicker than my arm!
I was interested to see that the sunflower hybrids, the fancies, did not revert to plain, but remain as original. In theory hybrids do not reproduce uniformly.
Miniature ''sunflowers'', black-eyed susans, in reality, grow well here. Exuberant color!
My friend also planted some tropicals for me. So far this is my Elephant Ear. It's more like a Mo ear in size. And my Russian Giants, dwarfed by growing in a deck pot.
Thus year my friend is trying to trim the sunflowers before the seeds start dropping. He had been bringing them to me to dry. I love them, even though the little seed head flowers drop and make a mess. Next winter I'll bring them to the dunes for the little winter birds and rabbits.
Summer at the beach means it's very humid. So I spray a lot of Tilex around every morning. Then I find myself burning pretty scented candles because not everyone loves the aroma, mmmm..., of Clorox, lol.
Have a good rest-of-July! August is almost here, too bad. How about you, are you tired of summer yet?
My summer has just barely begun! I waded in the pool this weekend hooray.
love
lizzy
gone to the beach....
from Kelley, in California, some stunning photos of the huge fire out there. Surreal.
and here at the beach...
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I love sunflowers! And when they come up volunteer, all the better. :) I didn't plant any this year. But I have a mystery plant coming up in a pot and it just may be a sunflower. Been very hot and dry here lately, but a storm is going over right now. Nice to have a change. Not tired of summer yet, ask me about mid Sept. :) Take care, Kit
ReplyDeleteOh, lots of great pictures! The volunteer sunflowers are great but I bet they were a huge surprise. I am surprised that the hybrids grew true, that was a nice surprise.
ReplyDeleteStill hot and humid here, but rain is in the forecast. I'm doing slightly better with the heat than in past summers, I think - no idea why. Although I wouldn't want to go without A/C in the house!
Really love that last sunflower photo!
I love the volunteer sunflowers! Do you know the deer will eat the top right off while they are growing?! That's so annoying!
ReplyDeleteSummer always goes too fast for me.
I love the look of sunflowers! If I'm ever in a bad mood, I just look at them and smile!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad they were able to volunteer for summer 'duty' even though they were unexpected guests.
Hoping you and Mo are coping well with the humidity!
Oh my gosh, so much fun! What a surprise. I'm laughing just thinking about it. Sunflowers are the happiest of flowers. The birds and rabbits are sure going to have a field day come winter.
ReplyDeleteLove the pic of Mo taking a little cat nap. The elephant ear is definitely his size.
Summer seems to have barely started. Hard to believe it's almost August. We have made a point to get in some summer activities. Hollywood Bowl, baseball game, a few picnics in Laguna Beach, crab feast. Looking forward to whatever else we get into :)j
Thanks for sharing!
Kel
sounds like fun summer doings out your way!
DeleteI love the sunflowers but after last night's big rain, I swear they ve all grown another 4 feet! Like Jack n the Beanstalk flowers, lol. My friend is gonna need a chainsaw to chop these babies down.
OH NO!!! Lol!
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