Sunflowers Are Popping
It’s the end of the summer and as other flowers are running out of steam, sunflowers start to pop.
It feels like there are more this year, and maybe there are. I know people were planting them in April as a symbol of solidarity with Ukraine, but how many? I don’t know. Maybe I’m just looking harder for signs of solidarity.
At any rate, there are a lot. And it’s good because one sunflower is, to be honest, a bit blah. The leaves get ragged, the flowers are a bit coarse, and one major thing they have going for them is their size. Ukrainians only plant a small percentage nationwide for the aesthetic value, they mostly plant them because the seeds are good to eat, great sources of cooking oil and the afterproducts of oil production are good for animal feed.
But when there are a lot of sunflowers, they are spectacular. So get ready to see a bunch.
In My Alley
People on my block are growing them in whatever space they can find behind their houses.
In Front Yards
People in surrounding neighborhoods are also using them as a statement plant in their front yards.
Accidental Artistry
And by accident, I realized there was a token bit of artistry in these final two photos.
The shadow of the sunflower here is not even awkwardly cut off!
And the yellow and black of the smothered Speed Hump Ahead sign mirrors the yellow and black of the sunflower. Totally on purpose. Totally.
Living in the country, I miss alleys. When I lived in the city, my dog and I found many treasures in alleys.
…I don’t know what the variety is but a cousin planted some last year that were the tallest I’d ever seen…perhaps it’s normal wherever they came from but to achieve eye-level with the actual flowerhead(s) necessitated a second storey window
…which to me at least seemed frakishly tall for sunflowers even if I am familiar with having to look up at them?
only one of our sunflowers is currently blooming, it is about 8ft tall. We have 3 others at least 8ft tall that are going to bloom soon. I love them but one good wind storm and they are down.
The one time I grew them squirrels took them down as soon as the flowers started to open. Since these all survived, maybe I’m overly paranoid.
Our squirrels don’t seem overly interested in them but when the seeds are ripe the birds are all over them.
There’s a corner in front of a dive bar and liquor store right next to some train tracks not too far from my house that people planted a fuckton of sunflowers a few years ago and now every year they come back.
Not only is it nice to see, but also last summer when it seemed like my entire friends page on facebook was people going out for photos in a sunflower field somewhere nearish St Louis, I took a selfie at the dive bar intersection and posted it. Folks thought I went to the fields, too. Hahahahah.
See — that’s what dive bars can do for you!