:: sunflower ::

A delight and a surprise for the first day of 2016 - our first sunflower (Helianthus annuus) is blooming cheerfully eastwards toward the passersby(mostly dog-walkers!) in our front garden.

I love this standout flower for so many reasons: their sunshiny beauty, stature, the large amount of carbon material they produce for my compost later on, for their abundant generosity - so many seeds from one flowerhead, that the bees and birds enjoy them too, the colour, the mathematics contained within, for so much wow factor from my own garden as a cut flower if I choose and generally, the utter joy I feel soaking up their radiance.

Vincent Van Gogh's First 'Lausanne' Version of Sunflowers with Turquoise background, 1888

I planted the seed for this lot of sunflowers back in October this year, with my fingers and toes crossed as our weather has been rather erratic, to say the least.  The seeds all gallantly surged upward and in what seemed like no time at all there were multitudes of plants powering up for the Summer.  As it is only the first of January, I'm tempted to see whether I could sneak in a late sowing now and maybe get some late Autumn blooms as well...? what do you think?