SUNFLOWER CONTEST..no rules, just post yours!

Well, I was just in the cafe and terri was talking about a sunflower contest so I thought I would start a new thread for the contest. There are no rules, just post your pics and tell us about them! (Of course, terri can pick the winners since it was her idea so I crown her judge for this contest!! LOL!)

Here is my babies as of a day or two ago that I had potted in my greenhouse...time to transplant them...they were about 5 inches tall.... These are mammoth sunflowers. The seed came from a sunflower head that was 18 inches across. I do not expect mine to get that big due to the plants being in really poor soil in the garden, but time will tell. These seeds were growing in a clump of seeds that were way to close together out in the sunflower patch we have started and so I scooped a few up to transplant up to the house yard and potted them when they first gernimated. Its time to bump them up to a bigger pot or put them back into the garden..

Well, ok, thats mine for starters...usually I plant a huge variety of small headed cutting sunflowers, but this year we did the whole big patch in these. If they do get heads, we will be feeding a lot of birds! There are thousands of these in the plot we started!

Well I am sure to win bb because when I stand next to my giants LOL and I am just shy of 5' myself they are gonna look huge, so you may as well throw in your moppin towel right now at 5" LOL! This is gonna bee a hoot!

Thanks for the new thread Blossom! We will let the tape measure or stick be the judge ok?
Mammoth sunflowers? Woo hoo! Your seedlings look ok, mine are looking bettter LOL!

Okay Terri, if we must! LOL

Well, those are the spindly ones... the better ones are in the back forty... hehehe!

So ok, its a race to the top!

Im not bragging until the very end! LOL!

Me either, let the best man win!

or woman!

Kid!

This Birthday present gave the idea!

More seeds!

Some Seedlings!

Good Luck with your Sunny Sunflowers everyone!

those are some seedlings. Glad mine are taking their time and storing up all their energy for the contest!

Terri wins the "straight" seedling contest hands down.. mine are spindly in the pot so I concede to hers!!... but heres mine out in the field....

Well they are looking good out in the field. Hope they don't tire themselves growing so fast. Mine are still asleep waiting for just the right moment to start a growth spurt! LOL

I think I'll put my "Cheap Hoe" scarecrow out there in the field to keep the critters from eating those lovely sunflowers BB.

Thanks! I am sure they wil appreciate that! So far the deer are leaving them alone. Dont really know what eats baby sunflowers!

We got 2.5 inches of reains last night. Hope they are not pelleted into the ground. WIll have to go take a look see later.

And that surely is some CHEAP HOE! LOL! That would keep anyone away! Excepting of course another "Hoe"! LOL! It can work my corner in the garden any day!

I figure she is the spittin image of me in the garden in years to come LOL!

Well, in that case, you are both adorable!!

I was out at the sunflower patch and holy cow what a difference the rain made. Trouble was I forgot the camera so I gotta go back out again.

Back in a while.

Perhaps you should consider starting a CUTE HOE BEAUTY contest! What a thread that could be!!! hehehe! Calling all Hoes! Shall we "dolly' up our garden implements???!

Ok, I am back from the main sunflower patch here... they are doing great! The rain helped them and so here ya go!

So set your weary hoe bones down and gaurd these will ya!! Hehehe!

Oh man, they just look too good to be true. I think I saw mine poking through yesterday, but could just been weeds LOL!

Last year, I planted a variety of sunflowers, mostly the 6 ft tall type. This year, I have volunteers popping up in strange places around the yard and in containers.

In this photo, you can just barely see a sunflower bloom peeking in from the left side. Just to the left of the slanted tree on the right you can see a small volunteer about 8 inches tall. In the stacked containers in the center of the picture are two flowering sunflowers growing from the top of two container stacks. The shorter one on the left with all the small blooms was probably planted by a bird. The 6 footer on the right I transplanted from a pot. I keep deadheading the smaller one and it just keeps pumping out blooms. I guesstimate about 20 blooms so far. The tall one has flowers blooming about 10 feet in the air. It can be seen by passersby from the road sticking up there above the 6 ft tall privacy fence. Those sunflowers are not staked or supported in any way, just their roots growing in the top pot of the stack (each pot is 2 1/2 gallons). Last night, strong winds did not blow them down but did blow over an 8 ft tall stack with tomato's growing out of the top pot.

If you look close in the top part of the photo you can see a bird. I figger he is the one planting all the sunflowers and came back to look at this handiwork.

Here is a close up of the sunflowers taken on the 23rd of May.

For the last several years we have put in a large plot of a variety of sunflowers, the type you use for cutting. Thius year we just put out the mammouths and well, maybe we will see some volunteers of the others, but I rather doubt it. Time will tell!

Jaywhacker, your gardens are very nice!

We just broadcasted the seeds, so I have areas that are too thick and probably too thin, but most should do ok providing we dont dry up. They are in pretty poor soil here. Although we did incorperate som ehorse manure and wood chips for humous!

The birds will have a field day later.
'
Right now I have goldfinches or oreiles and some purple finches feasting on the seed from a nearby birch tree and today as teh day got longer we kept seeing more and more. At one time I counted around 60 plus! It was pretty neat to see all those yellow birds taking advantage of natures bounties.

I live on a limestone ridge with about 2 inch's of top soil so can only do container or raised bed gardening. Last year I experimented with two gallon size nursery containers growing sunflowers of the type to be sold as cut flowers. I do believe container sunflowers could be profitable on a relatively small scale if succession planted throughout the growing season here in zone 8. They are day neutral and will crop in about 60 to 70 days depending on type of sunflower and weather. I do believe I could get three crops a year. Even my late season crop of sunflowers had some nice flowers although they did not grow to their full height as the weather cooled off.

It would be fun to plant all 16 sites of one of my grow poles in sunflowers. Just for kicks...............hmmmm? Should I??

Well, Jay, I think that is a decision only you can make....it would be cool though!!!

Heres our plot of broad casted mammouths today... what a difference a day makes after a rain...

Heres the hub standing in the patch.. I think they are abot 10 inches now. Unbeleivable how fast these are growing.

I just wanted to share a old picture of my son when he was two. This sunflower grew through winter and bloomed in early spring when it was about 4 feet tall. My son loved the Big sunflower!!! and we had to get a picture.

This message was edited Jun 4, 2009 4:19 PM

Awwww, now thats a winner!

Thank you. My boy is no longer a tiny tot and this picture will be treasured. :)

This message was edited Jun 5, 2009 10:47 AM

As well it should!!

Oh my!

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=6626479

That will do it!!! LOL!!!

I haven't even planted mine yet. Do I win something for last place? LOL

Everyone is a winner here! So whatcha waiting for???!

I need to get some row covers. I'm going to plant seeds directly and the birds will eat them all if I don't cover them. But I LOVE sunflowers - gotta have them!

mine are gaining on 15 nches now! Tonight they are predicting rain.. we will see what they do over nite again! LOL!

Welcome jaywalker and gardener2005 glad you found us here. Now jaywalker that is some significant raised bed gardening you have there. Quite the unusual planters and I really like how you have placed them up on your tables, quite clever and gives nice depth to your gardens. Gardener, your little gardener is cute as a button under that sunflower, so nice you have that fond memory in a photo.
The sunflowers are quite huge everyone, mine are still quite tiny. I agree that we are all winners here LOL, by the way blossoms are growing they will be long finished before mine even bloom!

Hi Jaywalker and gardener 2005 welcome! Thanks for sharing your sunflower pictures.
Love the raised beds with the tiered planters great idea!

Candee, I won't be getting my tallest sunflower until late August/Sept, sounds like Blossom will need her tape meaure before us!

I think she has been doing some measuring already, only not with a tape she is puttin her hubby to the task. I think I'll measure mine using my legs as they will look huge in no time, short as my legs are.

LOL!!!! Well, least we are all having fun.. now are we s'posed to shave our legs first? Of course some of us could win this thing by a hair... or is that hairs!