We planted a garden at our property this year (we used to garden at Emily’s grandparents’ place) and it was a terrible failure…mostly. The only semi-success was a patch of sunflowers we planted. I really love sunflowers (and really, pretty much all yellow flowers) so I was delighted that if only one thing could succeed, it was the sunflowers.
Sunflowers are absolutely beautiful when in their prime, but I don’t know if you ever noticed just how cool they are when they are done flowering and ready to harvest. I love looking at patterns that sort of draw your attention and refuse to let you look away…know what I mean? Ripe sunflower seeds create just such a pattern.
I don’t know if they are like snowflakes, but if you look at several sunflower heads, each is a little different. A month or more ago, my Dad and I harvested the seeds. It was sort of sad to mess up the patterns but I really love to eat sunflower seeds too! Although the sunflowers are way past yellow, they are still about the best flowers I know. I mean seriously…flowers you can eat?! Awesome!
We are forced to plant some sunflowers next year for our daughter who planted one in school and then brought it home where it promptly died. I have mixed feelings about sunflowers. I love to eat the seeds but I hated the significant chunk of my life I spent out in the bean fields chopping the plants down before they went to seed in the heat of summer. They are very hard on combine grain heads.
Yeah, I only plant one short row. I would not like to have to work too hard at cleaning them up. They can be sticky and sharp-ish too…but I do love their seeds!