Sunglowers and such

12 years ago

I may be a step or two slower this summer, but there are still a lot of nice flowers to be cut in my gardens. Here's a bucket and bouquet from yesterday.

Except for the container, I'm not convinced that the bouquet is much of an improvement on the flowers in the bucket. :)

ThinMan

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Comments (25)

natalie4b
12 years ago
Beautiful! Fresh, happy, cheerful, wholesome - love it!
Thank you for the flowers, ThinMan :).
schoolhouse_gw
12 years ago
I think that's every gardener's dream, to be able to go out and pick bouquets from dozens of flowers.
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Suzie, I plant Early Sunglow sweet corn every year for my early corn, normally planting the seed as soon as possible after the danger of frost has passed. Because it has such a short DTM, it usually produces a harvest by Memorial Day weekend. Both the plants and ears are small, but then most early corn varieties do produce small ears. I buy the seed right off the rack some years, but at the farm stores where I find it, it often sells out pretty early. I'm guessing that is because it is used by a lot of people fort their early corn since it can withstand late freezes and frosts to some degree.. One huge advantage of early corn is that it often matures ears even before the corn earworms and European corn borers arrive. I think I have seen Early Sunglow on the seed racks at either Lowe's, Home Depot or Wal-Mart this year, but not lately. If you have to order it, you normally can find it online at Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. The reason corn is planted in blocks is that it is wind pollinated and the pollen spreads around best when corn is planted in blocks of at least four rows. When you grow corn in one long row, pollination often is poor and when you harvest the ears, they may or may not have lots of kernels. Instead of planting one long row along the edge of a garden, just plant 4 shorter rows all together in a block. Be advised that if you have raccoons around, they love, love, love corn. In our earlier years here, I normally could get Early Sunglow to maturity before the raccoons even figured out I was growing corn. In more recent years, that has not been the case. One problem with the coons is that they will pick an ear, take a few bites of it and then discard it and eat part of another ear and apparently they do that all night long. It is not unusual for them to destroy dozens of ears in one night. Even worse, they won't wait for it to ripen, often pulling the ears 5-7 days before they'd be ready for a human being to harvest them, so you have a very slim chance of beating them to the corn. Most people who live near me in an admittedly rural area with high levels of wildlife have either given up planting corn altogther, or surround it with an electric fence to keep the raccoons out. I grow mine in a corn cage....a fenced garden just for the corn that has a poultry netting 'roof' to keep the raccoons out. This year in one of the new gardens I am going to plant corn without a corn cage or an electric fence. I am going to surround it with a double row of milk thistle plants in the hope that their big prickly leaves will keep the coons out of the corn. There are few things better than fresh corn on the cob. I like to harvest it and take it right inside and cook it and eat it right then. Since I plant a lot, some of it always does end up in the freezer. And, now that I have gotten better at fighting the raccoons, less and less of it ends up in their tummies. One of our neighbor's relatives had a corn patch that was a quarter mile long (I don't know how wide) and raccoons still got every ear. Another neighbor's brother trapped and shot raccoons every single night...18 raccoons in 18 nights....in order to protect his corn and save his harvest and he still got zero ears. Corn is very popular with squirrels and other wildlife too, so be aware of that. Often you won't have an issue the first year, but in subsequent years, as they discover what you're growing, you'll have to fight them for every single bit of it. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Early Sunglow's Description at SESE
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aftermidnight Zone7b B.C. Canada
12 years ago
Beautiful bouquet, I have just the place for it on my diningroom buffet :).

Annette
thinman
Original Author
12 years ago
Hmmmm. It looks like I invented a new flower - the sunglower. I kind of like the name.

TM
schoolhouse_gw
12 years ago
I wasn't sure if you intended that or not. They do glow in the sun after all. Good one.
Thyme2dig NH Zone 5
12 years ago
That is a stellar arrangement. Absolutely beautiful.
rafor
12 years ago
Gorgeous!!!!
mary_lu_gw
12 years ago
So glad you are able to get out into your gardens and enjoy them! Are you doing the farmers market this summer? The bucket makes me think that you must be.

Beautiful bucket, but absolutely gorgeous bouquet! Wish I could create such an arrangement.
Ginny McLean_Petite_Garden
12 years ago
Oh my! That is gorgeous!!!
natalie4b
12 years ago
They truly are the Sunglowers!
christinmk z5b eastern WA
12 years ago
Oh so beautiful! What variety of Rudbeckia and Millet are those? And is that a knapweed in the center, or something else? Fantastic bouquet- thanks for sharing!
CMK
thinman
Original Author
12 years ago
Thank you all for your compliments, which of course are exactly what I was fishing for. :)

I'm not doing the farmers market this year, Mary Lu. I had a little heart attack just at planting time so I didn't get much in the ground. The bucket was just a handy thing to cut into.

CMK - The rudbeckia is Cherokee Sunset and the millet is Setaria italica, Red Jewel. The tall purple stuff is Liatris and the tall yellow things in the center are Centaurea macrocephela.
Calamity_J
12 years ago
I just set this as the background pic on my computer...sooooo lovely!!!!
cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)
12 years ago
Sooooo pretty! Love the way they look just plopped in the bucket!
User
12 years ago
TM I love the flowers > I am sorry you had a heart attack. I sure hope you are on the road to recovery . I think sunglower is a perfect description. c
organic_kitten
12 years ago
What lovely flowers and an ideal arrangement of them.
kay
thinman
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks, Caroline. I'm essentially fully recovered. I just have to take my meds and hope that the heart disease reversal diet lives up to it's name. :)

TM
mary_lu_gw
12 years ago
TM, so sorry to hear that you had a heart attack. Very glad to hear that you are doing well now. Keep up the meds and good diet!

I'll bet you are sorely missed at the farmer's market. You grow such wonderful flowers and have such a knack for arranging them.
luckygal
12 years ago
Both arrangements are beautiful! Best of health to you!
aftermidnight Zone7b B.C. Canada
12 years ago
So glad to hear you have fully recovered. Diets for a healthy heart DO work, we've changed our eating habits considerably since DH had blocked artery problems 24 years ago, not saying we don't cheat once in awhile tho :).

Annette
DYH
12 years ago
Sorry to hear of your heart attack. Do take care.

Of all the moving parts, the heart is one with so many advances in medicine. My son's fiancÃ¯Â¿Â½ is an anesthesiologist for transplant surgery at Duke and I've learned so much from talking to her since she specialized in thoracic medicine (she's a heart and lung expert).

Your flowers are so beautiful and no bug bites on them!

Cameron
ladygladys
12 years ago
Breath taking flowers! I may have to add that perennial baby's breath to my list now to wintersow!
Annie
12 years ago
Oh how beautiful!
You truly have a way with flowers.
Yours ALWAYS look so fresh and perfect.

I hadn't been on here in a long while, but when I came back, I was wondering about you - I am so sorry to hear about your heart attack. It's great to hear that you are on the mend and being a good boy - taking your medicine and eating to live. :)
It's good to see that you still have your sense of humour.
Farmer's Market work is a LOT of hard work and l-o-n-g hours - from the crack of dawn til...?
I love the bouquet, but there is just something so charming about that bucket of flowers. Gorgeous!
I'm growing a small stand of sunflowers this year, and when they began to bloom, I was standing there one evening, admiring my little accomplishment and thought of you and your rows and rows of perfect sunflowers. How DO you keep them so pristine and unblemished????
Take care friend.

~Annie
BTW, How's my name sake?
kathi_mdgd
12 years ago
Absolutely Gorgeous,both bucket and vase!!

Sorry to hear about your heart attack,glad however to see you are doing well now.Working with/in your gardens will keep your spirit up,just don't over do it.TFS
Kathi
thinman
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks all, for the continued nice words and good wishes. This has to be the best and kindest group of people on any forum anywhere. :)

Annie, your namesake is doing really well. A year of maturity has mellowed her a lot and we are enjoying her a bunch.

This was taken in May:

TM

Sunglowers and such

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