Sunshine in the Garden
I loved your Pick Me Up today, probably because I love sunflowers, though I have never successfully grown any. But since you brought the subject up, I thought I’d send you some more garden sunshine.
Sunflower with bees
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Categories: #Flowers, Cee's Photo Challenge, Flower of the day
SERENDIPITY: SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
Magnificent sunflowers for today. So bright an shining and happy 😀
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I was grateful for a bright and shiny subject! It has been SO hot here, we don’t go out unless we have no choice. I have a lot of sunflowers from previous years and this seemed a good day to share them 😀
How are you guys holding up? If the weather weren’t so ghastly hot, we could get outside a bit more because there’s plenty of open land, but when it’s 100 degrees with 80% humidity, I can’t breathe and I think Garry is having trouble with it too. I think this weather isn’t good for anyone. Useful to have such a big archive, And the birds are hungry.
I saw — for the first time! — an Oriole on the deck, which was EXACTLY when my battery was flashing orange. I didn’t even have enough charge for one shot. But he looked just like the uniform of the Baltimore Orioles, but a lot prettier. Orioles don’t live here, but they occasionally visit.
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We drove by TWO sunflower fields last weekend, but I saw them mostly in the South of France. Sunflowers grew ‘wild’ from birds seeds, others didn’t grow although I really, really tried my best to make them grow, they seem to need things we can’t give them, so they just have one over you by growing where you didn’t plant them nor expect them to. But in any case, they are the best…. absolutely the best – and their spreading their sunny faces randomly in many of the gardens I pass by and they NEVER fail to make me smile, grin or have me nodding to them like good neighbours! Your collection is a joy to behold.
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And the bees LOVE them, too, as do the birds. A lot of what we feed the birds come from sunflowers. People eat them, birds eat them, and they are like a patch of sunshine themselves. I can’t grow them either. They need 100% full sun and a LOT of watering.
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I was shocked to see a field with ‘cut your own flowers’ nearby. They listed all the flowers and their price on a large board and promoted their sunflowers ‘without pollen’….. I was so angry, I didn’t want to buy any of their other flowers….. no pollen, no bees – on the other hand, this morning I rolled a large, near empty honey pot on our outdoor dining table and right now I took it back in, the bees have emptied every tiny trace of honey, the glass looks clear like new and not even a trace of honey or smell was left over!!!! 🙂
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They probably harvest the pollen rather than waiting for seeds. You get the flowers and they get the ability to not only grow more flowers, but create new flowers by crossing types of pollen. Before they harvest the pollen, I’m sure the bees get some creative time with it anyway.
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Sadly you’re wrong on that one. They are manipulated to NOT have any pollen. Because pollen can be ‘harmful’ to humans (such as me with allergy) and they don’t ‘mess’ up tables, table cloths and such….. Tragic really.
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Gorgeous crop of photos. I’ve never been able to grow any sunflowers successfully either, but it’s good to see some people can. It’s enough to lift anyone’s spirits – the sun shining from a glowing, lofty bloom. 🙂
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You need full sunshine and they need almost constant watering. And you have to stake them or the wind knocks them over. Some people seem to have a knack for them, but we are not them. I shoot other people’s flowers 🙂
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Sounds the right approach to me, Marilyn. Funnily enough we drove past a whole crop of them growing in a field earlier – sheltered, duly, beside a tall hedge – and I thought of you. 🙂
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Sunshine.., that’s what I’m talking’ about. Very nice Marilyn.
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They probably grow well in your part of the world. They really NEED sunshine and we don’t have enough.
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What a golden gift! Thank you. I truly love sunflowers. Driving through the Czech countryside one day, I saw acres of them .
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They grow them as crops throughout Europe, including Switzerland. What a sight a field of sunflowers makes. I bet the birds get excited and the bees love them.
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