Our plans for a children's garden always included a sunflower house. I think the kids were almost as excited about this plan as I was. When the weather warmed up we plotted our site, dug in some compost, and planted three types of sunflowers.
I gave free rein to my expectations because sunflowers are easy to grow, right?
We waited. The weather turned cooler. The corn started to grow, but only one sunflower had popped up some leaves. We waited a little longer, then replanted. We waited some more and got some growth, but nothing like what we planted. Nothing ever grew along the back wall of the house. Below is a picture of our sunflower house. Not much of a house, is it?
Our first sunflower bloomed yesterday. I adore it so I gave it lots of attention with the camera this evening.
We have a few others getting ready to bloom. Our one and only mammoth sunflower to grow has five heads on it. I really look forward to their entrance.
I intend to dig up the back wall of the house to see if I can find any seeds. If they are there we will try germinating the seeds before they go in the ground next year. If they are gone we will cover the seeds next year to protect them from pests. I suspect they are stubbornly lurking in the soil.
My kids are delighted by our sunflower. They seem to have forgotten that it was ever supposed to be a house. They also seem to have forgotten they used to play in the dirt here. They have moved on to a new location that is mostly shaded so they aren't sitting in the sun all day. So there is the silver lining in the cloud of disappointed expectations.
Next year is a whole new chance to try again. And we will!
