Here's where I start to go a little truly off topic for the blog; Sunflowers. These could be considered food if you would like to season, roast and shell your own seeds. I grow them to enjoy them and for the bees and butterflies to pollinate and the wild birds to eat. What's a garden without flowers?!
You never know where you're going to get a volunteer sunflower the next year and I love that. Last year I had 3 plants come up almost exactly in line with the tomato trellis and it worked out beautifully. They were all multi-headed sunflowers and put on a show for months. I did save seeds from those volunteers.
There are new sunflower varieties coming out ALL the time. I keep a jar of just the sunflower seeds that I purchase each year. They all go into the mix and get planted here and there. It's so much fun to see what you get; and how tall they are! Here's the new arrivals for the jar for 2023:
Strawberry Blonde, from Pinetree and Seeds N Such. Start with light yellow near the center, a light red through the petal and fading to white at the tips.
Jolly Joker, from Pinetree. A fine line of yellow around the center and double deep red petals with cream tips.
Fantasia Mixture, from Pinetree. Single rows and double rows of petals, solid colors ranging from cream to pink to orange to deep burgundy, some flowers with petals tipped in cream or yellow.
Florenza, from Pinetree. A mixture of dark red and burgundy petals with cream to yellow edges.
Velvet Queen, from Pinetree. That sunflower yellow but overlaid with deep orange towards the center of the flower.
Earthwalker, from Pinetree. Deep orange, all the way through the petals.
Floristan, from Pinetree. Deep red petals start with yellow near the center and fade to cream outer edges.
Italian White, from Seeds N Such. A small flower, creamy white, single row of petals with a narrow band of yellow at the center.
Ice Cream, from Baker Creek. Light lemon yellow single small size flowers.
Astra Gold, from Baker Creek. Sunflower yellow, double (triple?) rows of frizzy petals. Like a bad hair day for the sun.
Lemon Cutie, from Hoss Tools. A short little sunflower, only 1-2 feet high. Frizzy heads of a lemon yellow with narrow petals. This one is not going into the mix jar. I want to keep this one planted in the front of the flower bed!
What sunflowers are you planting this year? Any cool colors? I can't wait to see the show these put on!