Sunflower Seed Color Variation

My mom gave me some sunflower plants earlier in the year, and the ones I planted outside my kitchen window, on the South side of the house, did quite well.  I got three large flowers, and amazingly, this is the first year the squirrel didn't completely strip the seeds while they were still white.  So I just picked them about a week or so ago, since we had some frosty nights already in Vancouver.

Here are the flowers :

I found it very amusing that the color of the seeds from each of the flowers was very distinctive.  The one almost reddish, the second one very pale, and the other with the more characteristic black and white markings (except a bit pale since they were not fully developed) :

I would think my Mom got all the seeds from the same source, so I was amused to find such variation.

Colour Mosaic Monday : YELLOW

I may have some mixed feelings about the colour ORANGE from last week's theme, but I think it would be hard NOT to like this week's colour: YELLOW.  Yellow is so bright and cheery and is the colour of our life sustaining Sun.  Jen at unglazed may not have kicked off this week's theme yet, but I've got my yellow mosaic ready and I'm posting already on Sunday night (click any photo for a slightly larger view):

While we're on the yellow theme, I would like to also post my answer to this Spring's dilemna about what to plant in the front yard, against the granite-faced porch.  I decided to plant sunflowers, and I like the way they turned out:

There are about 8 plants, but since I started them in pots, and transferred each one when it looked ready, starting from the left side, they ended up like a line of school kids, arranged from tallest to shortest.  Unfortunately, the faces ended up pretty small (perhaps since it has been so dry, and I didn't keep up with watering them enough), but they got the good height (the tallest is maybe 10') which I was hoping for.

I'm also pleased to participate with this week's Monday Mosaic at Little Red House.  Stop by this week for more creative and colourful (not just yellow) mosaics.

Embarrassed Sunflower and Veggie Faces

Remember the handsome sunflower I posted about earlier? Well, he may be a bit embarrassed by all the attention, and ever since has been hanging his head:

On the veggie side, I have been blessed with a great crop of Purple Peacock and Scarlet Runner beans, even though I have only 4 poles of the former and 1 of the latter this year, with 5 of the poles not fully utilized (cut down by slugs or pulled off the poles by my snap peas). Even with only 5 poles, I have been picking a large handful of beans every 2nd day. In the last week, my cucumbers have started bearing also, with a fresh crisp cucumber for me every 2 or 3 days.

I was hoping to post a few photos, but realizing that it will look very much like my Purple Peacock bean photos from last year, and wanting to keep up my reputation for creativity, having recently been awarded the Creative Blogger Award by Crafty Gardener (thanks so much - what an honour!), I decided to post some veggie faces.... Mine:

My daughter's:

...and my son's:

By the way, "cool" moms encourage their kids to play with their food. :-)

What Turns a Sunflower's Head?

I have one very tall and handsome sunflower growing against my East fence. His face is wide and cheery and bright yellow. But to my dismay, he has decided to turn his head to face toward the neighbours below, instead of gazing into our yard of delightful flowers.


It got me to thinking the other day, what turns a sunflower's head? What causes them to gaze in a certain direction? Surely it is not the sun, since he is neither looking into or away from the sun's rays.

Next door, there is not much to look at:


Or is there? On closer look into the yard of the neighbour two houses down... There is this row of giggling, pretty sunflowers. Ahah!

Hummingbird Pics

I am determined to get a few photos of the hummingbirds which are constantly zipping about our garden this year. Since it was overcast today, I took the opportunity to try again. The quality is not good, but here goes anyhow:




The hummingbirds are most often near the Buddleia (butterfly bush) and Monarda in the top corner of the garden, but are also visiting many of the flowers in the garden, including the Crocosmia, Phlox, Lilies, and Fuschia. They chase each other around the yard, and up into the alder trees beyond our fence. They are so fun to watch.

I am really pleased with the Helianthus Giganteus this year, I wish I had a few more. Grows like a weed, as does the other sprout in the photo. :-)

Speaking of our sprout, after talking about wanting a pet every day for I don't know how long, we finally gave in to her request, and got her a hamster 4 days ago. "Hammy" seems to be settling in to the household fairly well. We have started taking him outside in the early evenings, while we clean his cage (I'm sure this daily ritual won't last long!). It is interesting that if we put his cage out, he will stay near it.

But that seems to be true of any large object; we had the same result with an overturned flower pot tonight. If he's in the open, he makes a quick dash for the wall, and runs along it. I am reminded of the time my son and I witnessed a small mouse running out into the street, and a crow swooping out of nowhere, to snatch it up. It is no wonder the hamster is not comfortable out in the open.

Hammy also enjoys my snap peas (just the peas, not the pods), so it gives me an excuse to get out picking them regularly. I had fallen behind in checking on them, since I had a large bag of store-bought snap peas in the fridge for the last week or so to enjoy. I just noticed that my Purple Peacock beans are ready to start picking, and I brought in my first handful last night. It seems only days ago that I had checked, and they were barely in flower. This summer is going by much too quickly for my liking.

To end on a positive note, the dahlias I received from my father-in-law are looking gorgeous again this year. My favourite is these tall (6') pink and white ones. They start out a vibrant pink, and fade almost to white with age. This year again, I didn't stake them early in the season, and it is too awkward to try now (without breaking too many branches), so the plants are flopping forward too much, especially when it rains. But the flowers, I think, are stunning.