Sunflower

When I was about 10, a sunflower seed I had sown grew to about 15 feet tall. Before it flowered, my 6 year old brother decided he wanted to get a closer look at the flower bud so he pulled it down to his level. You can guess what happened. I tried to fix it with Sellotape but, surprisingly, it didn't work and the plant died.

I sowed 8 sunflower seeds this spring. Six of them germinated but my husband, in a bout of enthusiastic gardening, weeded 4 of them out. This is the largest of the remaining two. It's barely 4 feet tall and this flower is tiny. I was quite close to it when I took this blip. I don't recall that the packet said it was a dwarf variety. Then again, it didn't say it was a giant variety, either.

So, what has happened to sunflowers? There are so many colours and sizes yet it's years since I've seen any of the huge, towering plants I remember from when I was a child.