This was the first year I've planted sunflowers, but it won't be the last. I grew them from seeds and they eventually peaked at almost 7 feet tall. These sunflower plants were rather scraggy - meaning the leaves weren't really that robust ... the stalks were yellowish ... but the flowers, OH! the sunflowers! Check out my pix ... with a lazy bumble bee on it. As usual, the photo doesn't really reflect the intense colors ... here a deep maroon - almost black - petal. And while the 'big boys' (the first heads to bloom) were enormous (about 8 inches in diameter), the blossoms now are rather small (about 2 inches in diameter). Not long ago, having coffee on the porch, I saw a family of finches trying to get loose some of those tightly packed sunflower seeds. The flower heads attract bees galore ... and the bees gorge on them ... unwilling to let go. I find them in the morning, drunk and sluggishly embedded in the center part of the flowers. Very ornery. Best to let them be until the sun warms them up. Then it's ok to swat them off and cut the flowers so I can enjoy them inside.
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