Sunflowers in the spring

This late spring/early summer we actually had two sunflowers growing in the yard. We feed sunflower seeds to the wild birds and we always get the little straggly attempts at sunflowers growing–but this year we actually had two that made it all the way to mature plants (though they didn’t have a lot of seeds to them).

Sunflowers are one of my favorite flowers mainly because of how they go from having hundreds of little pollen tubes to having hundreds of seeds (and it can seem like it happens overnight).

 

The sunflower is starting to open

This one was in the yard, but had to be given help in standing (also to keep the dogs from trampling it).

Looks like we’re going to be getting two for the stem of one

The second one was closer to the house, and actually ended up being a double-header.

Gone barely a week, & the flower is open and seeds are starting to mature

This one was taken less than a week after the first one at the top–it’s amazing how quickly it opened and seeds started to fill in.

A unusual double-headed sunflower

The double header was lagging about two-three weeks behind it in terms of blooming.

The double headed sunflower is starting to flower

But when it did finally bloom–the flowers pointed in opposite directions. This was about as much as these two bloomed–they never fully opened.

The other one though…..

The sunflower is being bashful today

Once the seeds started to fill in–the petals started to get slightly thinner.

A zoom in of the sunflower with it’s maturing seeds

A nice little look at the micro world of sunflower seeds.

 

A zoom in of the seeds

This one makes it look like it has worms crawling through the many little pollen tubes.

Even more of the center of the sunflower is filled in

A zoomed out look at the flower and seeds.

More and more seeds are starting to form and mature

Still another zoom out look at the seeds.

 

Hopefully next year we will have several more sunflowers actually grow in the yard, and maybe I can see about collecting the seeds and starting our own little sunflower patch to help feed the birds in the winter instead of going to the store and buying seed all the time.