Thursday, July 21, 2011

sunflowers in the morning....

So... I know it's not the prettiest pic around, but I've found, as I've gotten older that pretty doesn't always matter to me anymore.  I really really like these wild sunflowers... 

I don't know for sure how they origionally seeded in my yard, but these are the wild variety of sunflower that grows in fields throughout Texas... not so much in cow pastures, as cattle seem to delight in the seedlings in the spring. 

Usually, In the spring, I have hundreds of these seedlings along a wooden fence and I fastidiously clean them out to one or two plants.  This year, I got delayed, and they were 3 to 4 feet tall before I got to them.  A few got crowded out naturally, but the rest came up and were blooming before I even had a chance to think about thinning them, and the flowers were so cheerful perched above the velvety green leaves
 that I left them thinking they weren't doing any harm. 

Now they're going to seed, the leaves are browning, and they're decidedly ugly, weedy looking things anywhere from 4 to 8 feet tall... and I would definitely be out there with machete in hand if it weren't for one thing...

Every morning, I sit and watch cardinals, song sparrows, purple finches (they call them purple, the males have a raspberry red head and a decent little chirping song) and the mourning doves come and have their breakfast.  I've even seen house wrens and mockingbirds come down and search out insects, and particularly the ants that seem to colonize the stems.  It's really quite fascinating to watch them. 

I used to put out bird seed.  But the Grackles and English Sparrows would attack the feeders.  These two species don't seem to be bothering my sunflowers. 

So yes, the sunflowers, at this particular stage of their life, look ugly and weedy.  But I'm leaving them.  I enjoy them too much...

3 comments:

  1. Claude,

    I have always found the botanical displays of urban “fence row” gardens to be some of most showy and intriguing garden features. Even the dark, glossy green leafs of poison ivy has a beauty when mixed into the riotous blooms of Black Eye Susan’s, Daisies, Queen Ann’s Lace and any of the other short and tall growing phlox. But the birds your Sun Flowers are now attracting must surly be adding another dimension to the changing color palette. – gary

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  2. This is fantastic, Claude...I sure would leave them too!!! I had to laugh as you started out the post about not caring too much about pretty...but I see you still like "wild"!!! LOLOL.
    It is a neat sunflower bush and I say let them stay forever!!! :)

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  3. It's a good decision to just leave them growing in your yard. These flowers add color and beauty to the surroundings.

    Lisa from video-guitar-lessons-personal-teacher

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