We started tearing out our garden this weekend. We picked our pumpkins, and pulled out their tangle of vines. We dug out our rutabagas and onions, and removed what was left of our squash plants too, although the bugs got most of them already. We'll have to do something about those bugs for next year's garden. The thing that took the most time to remove, though, was our sunflower plants. They really went pretty crazy this year.
Getting all those plants out made me think it was past time that I should have made my annual flower post. Although, I didn't do a post last year, since our yard hadn't been ready for planting yet back then. Does that make this a semi-annual post then? Oh wait, that means twice a year, eh? Not just sort of annual? All right, forget it.
The picture above was our first flower of the season. It's kind of a funny story, because we didn't plant that sunflower. We had a bird feeder that was over on the side of our front porch, and the birdseed in the feeder included some sunflower seeds. Well, the messy birds managed to knock at least one seed off the porch and into the flower bed. Soon, a nice big sunflower plant was growing on the side of the house.
We did plant some seeds of our own, however. my wife planted them all along the fence on the west side of our yard, and they really took off. Just look at this mess of flowers.
There were several different kinds of seeds in the mix. The small yellow flowers like these:
We planted some of the reddish flowers like these:
Then there were the big ones. I believe the breed is called the mammoth sunflower. They were our biggest flowers.
These are the kind of flowers that create the giant seeds that are big enough to be worth eating. They make big plants too. This is a picture of our tallest, and largest flower. I'd say this sunflower plant grew to about twelve or thirteen feet tall. It grew well above the height of the hammock stand that we built in the backyard. It was as tall as the trees it was growing alongside of.
Looking at that picture, it's hard to tell just how big the flower was too, so here's something that gives a little perspective.
When we finally cut the flower down, this was how huge it was. Bigger than my head...by a good ways...and my head is pretty dang big too.
Not all of our sunflowers were giant-sized. These ones are called teddy bear sunflowers, mostly because of how fluffy and fuzzy they look, I assume.
My wife planted them along the east side of our property. The flowers get to be about the size of your hand or so, and the plants only grow about knee-high.
I harvested seeds from every one of these kinds of sunflowers, and I'm saving them to use next year. We should have really great sunflowers then.
But sunflowers weren't the only thing we planted. My wife started these marigolds indoors in the spring, and moved them outside once the temperatures were mild enough.
They grew like gangbusters, making great big bushes of flowers in several places.
This picture here is my favorite. This reddish-orange breed are what I think is the prettiest.
The other kind of flower my wife started indoors were zinnias.
She grew a bunch of them, and I got some pretty nice pictures of some pretty wonderful blossoms.
It wasn't all purple either. Some white ones as well.
Beyond that, she planted a new bush in the front yard, and it grew huge, and was covered all over the place with blossoms.
These are hibiscuses.
They're beautiful. I look forward to seeing more of them year after year.
Okay, last but not least, check out these flowers:
What kind of flower would you guess that those are? Maybe you know where I'm going with it or maybe you will be surprised like I was to learn just how beautiful this plant could actually be.
It's not what you would expect. Those are flowers from our onion plants. Cool huh?
Getting all those plants out made me think it was past time that I should have made my annual flower post. Although, I didn't do a post last year, since our yard hadn't been ready for planting yet back then. Does that make this a semi-annual post then? Oh wait, that means twice a year, eh? Not just sort of annual? All right, forget it.
The picture above was our first flower of the season. It's kind of a funny story, because we didn't plant that sunflower. We had a bird feeder that was over on the side of our front porch, and the birdseed in the feeder included some sunflower seeds. Well, the messy birds managed to knock at least one seed off the porch and into the flower bed. Soon, a nice big sunflower plant was growing on the side of the house.
We did plant some seeds of our own, however. my wife planted them all along the fence on the west side of our yard, and they really took off. Just look at this mess of flowers.
There were several different kinds of seeds in the mix. The small yellow flowers like these:
We planted some of the reddish flowers like these:
Then there were the big ones. I believe the breed is called the mammoth sunflower. They were our biggest flowers.
These are the kind of flowers that create the giant seeds that are big enough to be worth eating. They make big plants too. This is a picture of our tallest, and largest flower. I'd say this sunflower plant grew to about twelve or thirteen feet tall. It grew well above the height of the hammock stand that we built in the backyard. It was as tall as the trees it was growing alongside of.
Looking at that picture, it's hard to tell just how big the flower was too, so here's something that gives a little perspective.
When we finally cut the flower down, this was how huge it was. Bigger than my head...by a good ways...and my head is pretty dang big too.
Not all of our sunflowers were giant-sized. These ones are called teddy bear sunflowers, mostly because of how fluffy and fuzzy they look, I assume.
My wife planted them along the east side of our property. The flowers get to be about the size of your hand or so, and the plants only grow about knee-high.
I harvested seeds from every one of these kinds of sunflowers, and I'm saving them to use next year. We should have really great sunflowers then.
But sunflowers weren't the only thing we planted. My wife started these marigolds indoors in the spring, and moved them outside once the temperatures were mild enough.
They grew like gangbusters, making great big bushes of flowers in several places.
This picture here is my favorite. This reddish-orange breed are what I think is the prettiest.
The other kind of flower my wife started indoors were zinnias.
She grew a bunch of them, and I got some pretty nice pictures of some pretty wonderful blossoms.
It wasn't all purple either. Some white ones as well.
Beyond that, she planted a new bush in the front yard, and it grew huge, and was covered all over the place with blossoms.
These are hibiscuses.
They're beautiful. I look forward to seeing more of them year after year.
Okay, last but not least, check out these flowers:
What kind of flower would you guess that those are? Maybe you know where I'm going with it or maybe you will be surprised like I was to learn just how beautiful this plant could actually be.
It's not what you would expect. Those are flowers from our onion plants. Cool huh?
