Hi! I am excited to share my 70 Day Journey into planting Sunflower seeds and seeing them grow, and then bloom, and producing seeds.
No, I have not harvested them, but I am looking forward to it.
Let us look at the first steps of the journey:
Sunflowers are one of my favorite flowers. They are bright, cheerful and are wonderful pollinators for our bees and butterflies! They also are symbolic for the sun: source of light, energy and warmth. There’s definitely a lot going on with these big bright blooms, more than meets the eye?
I have experienced sunflower planting before and it was magical. So this time I dedicate it to children and planted with them. My son and his friends!
Them tiny hands, seeds and egg trays😍✨
children are great imitators and when we show them the beauty of nature and nourishing the environment, it is full of reward! And the kids love nature and enjoy these moments.
✨Building core memories✨
The first sprouts after 3-10 days 🌱
The first sprouts are the crown of your planting experience. This is quite far away from the journey of seeing the bloom and seeds but for me, I think its rather the most exciting part to see “LIFE” and its manifestations.
I have a lot of them at different growth stages, sharing my favorite edits anyways!
Those leaves with the leaf caps looks so cute and lovely! I just can’t explain the joy 😍 what makes it so special? Well it is a baby sprout! So precious and so hopeful!
NEXT
Growing secondary leaves 🌿
Secondary leaves are a sign of maturity.
They are not the primary leaves but the stronger, bigger leaves that sustain the plant’s nourishment. From here they grow taller faster. Provided there’s a lot of room.
Since me and the kids planted on egg trays so its much more manageable for us, the sprouts could not grow too fast but we were able to watch them
eventually me and my husband decided to transfer them again to a bigger tray, my mistake was possibly irritating the sunflower roots. ‼️ I have recently learned that sunflowers do not like their roots being damaged or touched due to repotting. There can be consequences like stunted growth.
Direct planting is possible and ideal
Replanting them finally in the outdoors 🥹
I was helped by a good friend Althea to replant the sprouts in the garden to let them grow to their full potential
I tried to take some photos using the portrait mode and it did work, looks focused on the subject.
NEXT COMES BUDDING STAGE!
These are giants that are supposed to grow up to six feet however due to multiple repotting and hotter weather and less water availability they kind of bloomed earlier
So 🫠 yes sunflowers bloom early (called premature blooming) when they feel the need to reproduce earlier because of stress or harsh weather conditions.
honestly was so sad if they didn’t survive or grow tall. But I guess there is something to be learned with each experience. Did I water them enough? Is the soil any good? Is the variety healthy? So many things to consider. But at this point, I thought to myself that I should come to accept whatever height it is as long as they produce a flower and seeds then they ARE THE BEST THING! Especially for the kids to witness. Okay so we move forward to…
BLOOM AND GROW!
The following photos will be a mixture of ALL MY TOP FAVORITES and also budding to blooming to seeding pictures.
some I think are super wallpaper worthy, I am not a pro but I definitely am using them as my current wallpaper. Youll probably see a star emoji under the picture if I think they’re taken really well and beautifully
Also, the photos uploaded are in chronological order so like these first flowers are the very first to pop their sun to the outside world hehe 🌻
Featuring the next closed bud…
I do take retakes and close ups so you might be seeing multiple photos of the same flower…
But we have more than 20 blooms so there will be a lot!
Lets look at some leaves and some close ups✨
The baking pollen
I have always thought it so interesting and funny how sunflowers seem to puff up pollen and bloom their tiny flowers like they’re cakes in an oven. The following pictures, you’ll see how they slowly rise and open up! Enjoy
Trying to upload the side view this time
Seems like my internet is slower
Website keeps crashing, tiny oopsies!
I might have to cut the post to here since I feel like I cannot upload anymore
before I leave, let me share some cute moments on how the children reacted on anticipating the growth, height and just waiting for it to bloom
They are ages 3-9, so these were the things they have said:
“This is the first time Ive ever seen sunflowers grow! They are my favorite now”
“The sunflowers are big!”
“How tall are they gonna be?”
“I’m still taller than them!!!”
“Oh! The sunflowers are taller than D and C now!”
“Boy, they take a long time to grow”
“Don’t step on the sunflowers!!!”
“Are we going to plant the seeds?”
(More photos to come!)
Even our cats must think they are lovely!
For the second part, I shall post majority of the sunflowers which bloomed and also the seed part.
These magical lovely flowers which were shorter than expected have been little sunny miracles for us and our garden.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!
all photos are original and mine