Sunflowers!!!

**Freedom** · 07-06-2007, 06:47 PM

Every year, I tell Dad we have to have some sunflowers in the vegetable garden, to attract bees, to pollinate the corn.

Sunflowers are annuals. But they make such a huge seed head, that they often reseed. Plus I have bird seed out all winter with sunflower seeds in the mix. We end up with sunflowers all over the yard and I move all of them to the veggie garden. Well, this year, they all SURVIVED THE MOVE!

We have some sunflowers, see?

There really ARE some veggies in there and 4 rows of corn. You'd never know it.

Here is chianti:

More coming!

**Freedom** · 07-06-2007, 06:49 PM

This one is Florenza:

And a few I don't know for certain.

And since I am on a yellow streak, here are some Asiatic lilys; I don't know the variety; they were already here when we bought the house.

I LOVE sunflowers, they are big smiley faces to me! Hope you smiled, too.

**Catlady711** · 07-06-2007, 10:19 PM

Sunflowers are my all time FAVORITE flower, I just LOVE them!!!!!

I didn't realize there were so many types of sunflowers. In the flowerbed next to my garage I only have spring bulbs and little room for anything else. However I do have birdfeeders above it and let the sunflowers grow up each year. Hubby prefers this because before I'd just let them grow around the birdfeeder pole and he hated trying to mow around them. I don't know which variety my sunflowers are, I've always refered to them as 'black oil sunflower" or 'grey striped sunflower' depending on which birdseed I was feeding. This year I have both kinds, best I can tell the black oil ones have small and very few heads per stalk and black centers, and the grey striped ones have multiple heads, larger and yellow centers.

I also have some of those lilies by my garage with the sunflowers. I bought them so long ago that I can't remember what they are called either.

Here's some pix of mine.

And I have what I call 'standard tiger lilies' too. Not for sure on these as they were here when I moved in.

**Killearn Kitties** · 07-07-2007, 04:21 AM

I adore sunflowers! I have a lovely bunch of them downstairs right now.

Every year I say I will grow some and never do. They are so easy to germinate too. You reminded me about when I used to put mixed seeds on an old wooden bird table that was here when we bought the house. Quite often the sunflower seeds would start to sprout, trying to root themselves into the wood.

I think I might get some next year.

**Hellow** · 07-07-2007, 09:13 AM

Is it still in the season when you can plant them because i want to plant some out of Little Bits gerbil food?

**Karen** · 07-07-2007, 10:42 AM

You might be able to buy plants already started somewhere, but it's too late to start them from seed now, unless you live way in the South.

Catlady711 - the orange one isn't a tiger lilly, it's a day lilly. They have naturalized many places, we have them in our yard as well. Day lillies are called that because each blossom lasts just one day. Tiger lillies are a different plant - they have shorter leaves that grow from a stem, instead of looooong leaves that sprout from the ground.

**Kalei** · 07-07-2007, 10:54 AM

Wow, what beautiful flowers, they definately could make one's day a little bit brighter

**Pembroke_Corgi** · 07-07-2007, 11:38 AM

You have lovely flowers in your garden!

**Catlady711** · 07-08-2007, 07:18 PM

Originally Posted by Karen

Catlady711 - the orange one isn't a tiger lilly, it's a day lilly. They have naturalized many places, we have them in our yard as well. Day lillies are called that because each blossom lasts just one day. Tiger lillies are a different plant - they have shorter leaves that grow from a stem, instead of looooong leaves that sprout from the ground.

Thank you Karen. I didn't realize they had 'naturalized'. It's always hard for me to identify some plants, particularly when I didn't go pick them out and buy them lol. That must mean that the ones in my front yard are the true 'tiger lilies' they look like you describe.

**Almita** · 07-08-2007, 07:50 PM

Those are gorgeous i love sunflowers, they're so pretty. More of a fan of lily's and tulip's. I think all flowers are gorgeous, we don't have much here at the moment since its really hot out in the 100's summer is never good to plant them out here.