Singular stems reaching for the sky, a few sunflowers serve as sentries in my back garden.
Disk flowers ruddy, ray flowers yellow, all heads face east in morning light. The sentinels are fixed in their spots, moving only with breezes and birds’ perches.
Having chosen its particular garden, each sunflower stands its ground.
My Gardener Says... 
Sunflowers have a reputation for favoring disturbed ground. Is that the case for any of your sunflowers?
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Well, I don’t really know. It makes sense, and because they come up prolifically in my garden where I’ve planted, pulled, and plowed (not so much, but still…), I guess the sunflowers don’t mind disturbed soil. I don’t mind the sunflowers, either. 🙂
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There are hundreds of sunflowers blooming in the midst of our local road construction site now. I keep looking for a vantage point to photograph some with the huge yellow cranes and other equipment, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. Your garden’s much more peaceful, although sunflowers always look happy, no matter where they are.
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They’re just the best summer flowers, aren’t they? I can appreciate your equipment problem polluting your photos. I have the same issue with my front gardens because I don’t want neighbors’ cars, trucks, garbage bins, or AC units in my photos. It’s tricky, to be sure.
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That’s where lying on the ground (on a mat) and aiming partly upward comes in handy.
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In this case, I’d love to get the flowers AND the equipment! There are so many sunflowers around getting a photo of them isn’t a problem, but a stand of sunflowers combined with the pretty yellow cranes would make a great way of illustrating the flowers’ willingness to set up shop just anywhere!
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Yes, sunflowers as sentinels is a great description. I can’t believe how fast they grow and bloom in the longer summer days and warmth.
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They are frighteningly fast growers. I always forget how quickly they grow and how tall and wide. This year it was fine, as they’re in my “new” garden where our tree was removed last fall. They’ve helped fill in and give some privacy for the sitting area and I’ve liked that very much.
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Well you can add poet to your (growing) list of accomplishments. Gardener, blogger, photographer, wildlife conservationist, etc. etc. etc.
Sunflowers are so generous – their beauty, their attraction for pollinators, their seeds for wildlife and the deer out here eagerly eat any cut stems we toss over the fence – I don’t know if it is water in the stems or taste or both. They are The Giving Flower (sorry Shel Silverstein!).
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Deb, you’re making me blush. 🙂 I will agree with your statement that sunflower are ‘generous’–they provide so much and for so long, they’re excellent wildlife plants. I’m glad your deer like the stems and I’m sure as dry as it is, they’re mighty appreciative.
*The Giving Flower*–now who’s the poet? 🙂
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