I’ve never grown sunflowers before, and I wouldn’t have grown them now except my brother gave me two plants, about 8 inches high, at the start of May.  I kept them in the greenhouse watering regularly (too much) and they grew a bit.

But we were going on holiday for a week at the beginning June, so I planted them out, tied them each to a garden cane, threw some water over them – and left them to get on with it.

 

They continued growing over the summer; taller than I expected.  The larger of the two plants produced a giant seed head and several smaller flowers, while the smaller (at the start) eventually overtook it, but only had one flower.

All was going well until . . . on Wednesday 19th September, after a few days of windy weather, one fell over.

I rescued the seed heads

and propped the stem up until such time as I could remove it completely.

A few days later, I cut the second plant down and saved the seed head – even bigger and heavier than the first.

So here’s what I’m left with – two ‘sticks’, a much lighter garden – and I’ve got my views back too.

Finally, I managed to pull them out of the ground and cut the stems down even more (with a hand saw!!).  Now only the root balls remain – and I’m waiting for the rain to wash the soil back onto the raised bed before I remove them completely.