Sunflowers

We can all agree that sunflowers are beautiful, but I'd like to propose that they are also one of the most complicated and interesting flowers on this planet. 

We admire them for their height, their large inflorescence, their cheerful presence, their ability to move in a breeze and make the garden dance.

But they also have attributes, both good and bad, that make them extremely fascinating. Let's go through them one by one and discuss.

1) Sunflowers track the sun.

You may have witnessed young sunflowers following the sun with their heads (this is called heliotropism), but it wasn't until 2016 that scientists discovered the why and how of this process. They determined that sunflowers, like humans, have a circadian rhythm, a behavioral cycle tied to an internal clock. But the plant's 'turning' is actually different sides of the stem elongating at different times of day.  This has to do with a plant hormone called 'auxin,' which does a lot of neat things, like assert apical dominance, but also elongates cells on different side of the stems at different times of day. 

Here's a neat video that explains this process very simply:

2) Pollinators love sunflowers.

We all know sunflowers are great for bees. Honeybees collect both pollen and nectar from the flowers, but native bees are actually more efficient pollinators of sunflowers. Here's why: Honeybees tend to forage either nectar or pollen on a single foraging trip, which means they visit different flowers on the sunflower inflorescence, neglecting others; native bees collect both nectar and pollen on foraging trips, ensuring cross-pollination. This is due to the kind of flower this plant makes, which I will discuss in the next point. But if you'd like to see more about this, you can check out this page from the Xerces Society. 

3) An odd, interesting, cool flower

Sunflowers bear a type of inflorescence called a 'capitula,' which is actually composed of two different kind of flowers: Ray and disk. The inside of the sunflower is comprised of a lot of little tiny flowers called 'disk' flowers. Each has five tiny petals that are fused into a cup-like structure, 5 stamens (male parts), and a pistil (female parts). Each disk flower makes one seed. On the outside of the flower, the things that look like petals are called 'ray' flowers. They have all five petals fused to make one huge petal, and they also have five stamens and a pistil, and make one seed. This is a feature of all plants in the Asteraceae family, though each species can have vary in the amount of ray and disk flowers it has. 

Photo credit: Smith College

4) Allelopathy

Here's one of the not-so-great features of sunflowers. They are allelopathic, which means they exude chemicals that act as herbicides to the surrounding plants. All parts of the sunflower - seeds, hulls, leaves, flower petals, roots, root exudates - act this way, and can inhibit the growth of other species. Many plants do this - you might be familiar with the allelopathic qualities of walnut, for instance - and it ensures survival of their species, which is a good thing. But it's not a good thing for us gardeners, as we usually want to grow sunflowers mixed in with other, lower plants. Apparently grasses, potatoes, and beans are particularly susceptible, but I have noticed that even native wildflowers will not grow well around sunflowers. 

Which is why I vowed, last year, to stop growing them, as a gardening friend reminded me when he saw pictures of 200 sunflowers in my 'greenhouse.'

Usually I add sunflower seeds to my wildflower seed mixes and broadcast into the pollinator gardens. I never have good luck with this, because most of the sunflower seeds get eaten by birds or squirrels immediately. This is why I decided to germinate the seeds inside the greenhouse this year instead of directly in the garden. But I also have noticed that, in the areas where a sunflower does manage to germinate and grow, there is little growth around it. 

What I have discovered in my research that the allelopathic compounds in sunflowers especially affect the germination rates of other seeds. So, if the other seeds have already germinated in the pollinator gardens (and they have), and I've already got the sunflower growing well in cups in the greenhouse (I do), it might work to add these plants in and see how the other plants do around them. But, do I really want to take that chance? I'm just not sure. I might plant a couple in with other things just to see for myself what happens to more mature plants. But the bulk of these sunflowers are going to be planted in an area with no other plants around them, I think. 

What about you? Do you grow sunflowers? Have you noticed this affect? Do you see lots of bees on your flowers? Have you seen sunflowers tracking the sun? Do you love these flowers as much as I do?

Crocosmia

Do you know the flower crocosmia? It's a South African native, a corm in the Iris family, and spreads so rapidly that it can be a bit of a bully in the garden.

This is not a photograph I took, but here is how it looks when it blooms.

It's  a lovely plant and the hummingbirds do like it. 

About 12 years ago, a friend gave me some corms and I planted them (unknowingly) in the wrong spot. I think they've bloomed twice in those twelve years, though the greenery comes up every year like clockwork. I thought it was time to dig them up and see what they looked like, and replant them in various other places in the garden to see if they'll do better somewhere else.

Corms are interesting because the 'mother' corm is at the bottom and is the oldest in the 'chain.' The 'daughter' corms are above the mother and continue to form new daughters as the years go by. Several of the corms I dug up had over 10 daughter corms. As the chain grows, the mother corm actually pulls herself down deeper into the soil in order to make room for the daughters.

It was fun to dig down deep and discover the chains of corms. Some were shriveled and used up, some were papery, some were red. Some had already sprouted.

Being South African, you'd think these plants would want full sun and dry conditions. But that's where I've had them all these years, and they haven't flowered much. So I replanted them in shadier conditions near the drip line. They'd probably like some looser, richer soil, but I'll see how they do without any amendments first. 

Do you grow crocosmia?

Heading

Growing heirloom winter wheat has been such an interesting experiment. Grains are an excellent rotation for any cropping system, as they build soil and feed microorganisms with their extensive roots. They prevent erosion, cover the earth, and provide a great deal of biomass that can be used as mulch or compost material. There's very little pest pressure.  And, if you're lucky, you get a crop on top of all that.

Our wheat crop, which was 'lodging' (or falling over) has righted itself and is now 'heading.' The plants generally go through an aggressive growing process in early spring, then form a type of leaf called a 'flag,' which is easily seen in the above photo. The flag leaf produces a shaft wherein the grain begins reproduction. Those flowers you see are self-pollinating, and after the pollination process, seeds will form.

I grew up near farming communities on the east coast, but I don't ever remember seeing grain. I know very little about it. I imagine if you grow up in the mid-west, you're very used to seeing these crops. I have had a good time researching how wheat grows; I've needed to consult the experts at every stage. It's evident that my crop is heading quite a bit earlier than wheat usually does in our state, early April being the common time. We had very warm temperatures for about two weeks in early February, which I think triggered the plants to begin reproduction. February 15 is our last frost date, so I'm hoping that it won't get too cold now (temperatures have dropped!), and that the seeds can withstand that chill. If they do withstand it, this early heading is a great thing, because I might just get a small crop in before I plant out tomatoes in May. Normally wheat isn't ready to harvest until late May or early June here.

When the plant has set seed, it will start to brown and dry up. Then I will know it is time to harvest, sheave, and then thresh. Of course, the right amount of water is very important now, so I'm glad we have an irrigation system, as it hasn't rained here for the entire month of February, and actually I don't remember getting any significant moisture in January either. 

Meanwhile, I'm in the process of potting up over 200 sunflower seedlings. I may have overdid, just a little.

Peppers and Poop

Yesterday, I got all the peppers seeded, 50 in all! I want to make our own powdered paprika, so I planted three different kinds of Hungarian paprika peppers. We've got the usual other hot peppers, as they seem to be reliable for us, and a great mixture of both bell and horn-shaped  sweets for roasting and eating fresh.

Peppers take a little while to germinate, so I wanted to start them a couple weeks earlier than tomatoes. I'm glad to have them in a tray, on a heat mat, under lights. Our house was feeling curiously bare without any seed-starting activity. It feels weird to start everything so late, but I'm trying to time our big harvest for August rather than July.

I do believe I might plant all of the peppers in 10 gallon pots this year. Room in the beds is always at a premium, and peppers do well in containers, some say even better than in beds. This is because the roots stay very warm. 

In other news, we had a poop windfall. A friend of mine raises rabbits in a large coop-like structure outdoors. The floor of the coop is concrete so the rabbits don't dig out, and on top is a mixture of garden soil and hay. Over the last many months, the rabbits have added their feces and urine to this mixture, all while digging and aerating it. My friend wanted to remove it and replace it with fresh dirt and hay, and called me to see if I wanted to take the old mixture away. Oh yes, I giddily replied. Today Tom and I made two trips and ended up with a nice big pile of enriched soil, which will sit under the apple tree until I'm ready to plant tomatoes, and then we'll amend the beds with it.

Rabbit poop can be used right away around plants, as it's not as 'hot' as chicken manure, which needs to be composted first. However it will only improve with a little sitting. Here's a close up of the soil:

It's so good to have friends who think this way and call me when they have this sort of thing to give away! I'm not going to have to buy compost this year, or maybe an extremely reduced amount, which is stellar.

Today

"If ever there were a spring day so perfect, so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze ...

... that it made you want to throw open all the windows in the house...

... and unlatch the door to the canary's cage, indeed, rip the little door from its jamb, ...

... a day when the cool brick paths and the garden bursting with peonies ...

... seemed so etched in sunlight that you felt like taking ....

... a hammer to the glass paperweight on the living room end table, ...

... releasing the inhabitants from their snow-covered cottage ...

... so they could walk out, holding hands and squinting ...

... into this larger dome of blue and white, well, today is just that kind of day."

- Billy Collins, 'Today'