Friday, July 16, 2010

The Mutant Sunflower

Welcome thyme2garden! Good luck with your SFG!

Last year I planted ONE dwarf sunflower. I guess I was afraid to go overboard. This year I am growing the same variety (actually using leftover seeds), but planted SIX! Ooooh...Ahhhhh! The seedlings barely survived because something was eating them and I feel like they have taken forever to grow. Planted in April, they are now just getting to be about maximum height (3-4 feet) with the sunflower heads starting to form.

Anyway, the other day I was taking a quick scan of the garden and noticed that one sunflower was "not like the other"...




I lost count at 15 heads (some of which are indicated above)! None of the other sunflowers are as tall as this one or has this 'problem.' I wonder if I got a rouge seed of another variety!? Will they all form heads with seeds?

Stay tuned to see what happens!


5 comments:

Toni said...

Can't wait to see your sunflowers! I LOVE them!

I have 2 volunteer sunflowers that reseeded themselves from last year... I'm hoping that they are the red ones.... we'll see!

thyme2garden said...

Thanks for the mention! Ahhh, I feel so recognized right now... :) Now about that sunflower. I've never grown them, so I can't speak with any authority, but I thought each plant (stalk?) was supposed to have one sunflower head? I'm curious to find out how it develops!

Anonymous said...

I live in Japan for now and at one of my favorite restaurants I was given some sunflower seeds in which I planted in small pots with my 4 year old daughter. I really didn't think anything would come of it. Since, about 3 months now, I have had to replant my sunflowers about 3 times. One is about two feet tall and the other about 4 feet. The 4 footer I believe is bigger because the pot is bigger. I have a small balcony and am not able to really plant them, but I had no idea what I was getting into. Just like yours, my sunflowers seem to have multiple heads! I had never heard of this before. I cant wait to see what yours do. Do you have any suggestions for mine? Thank you so much!!!

Funkbunny said...

Hi,

I just found you blog and have been enjoying the lovely summery pics. We are in the middle if winter here in Melbourne, Australia but your sunflower pics remind me of one I grew last summer: http://funkbunnysgarden.blogspot.com/2010/01/what-whopper.html

keen101 said...

Wild sunflowers generally have 20-30 small (very small) heads on each plant. I'd say yours might have cross pollinated with a wild one, or still has some old genetics.