Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Sunflower

As I've been cleaning up the garden, I've decided to leave most of the sunflowers on the plants for the animals to find over the winter. So far I've had no birds or squirrels eat my sunflowers. Isn't that strange?

I've kept one head. I'm thinking of planting the seed next year. I'm curious to see what plants will grow. The head was from a Lemon Queen sunflower, which is a tall, pale yellow flower, but that was the only one of its variety to grow. My other sunflowers were MusicBox, which is a dwarf variety that has orange markings. Did they cross?

According to Susan Ashworth, sunflowers can be self-incompatible or not depending upon the variety. I don't know what Lemon Queen's behavior is. Since it was part of the Great Sunflower Project, I often watched the bees on the plants. I noticed that the bees that went to the Music Box flowers didn't fly up to the Lemon Queen. They tended to stay low to the ground. And likewise the ones that visited the Lemon Queen flowers flew in high and didn't go down to the ground. That doesn't mean that there was no pollen transfer. It just means that I never saw it. If the Lemon Queen variety is self-incompatible then the one plant couldn't have formed seeds with its own pollen and I would have a hybrid. But what would it look like?

12 comments:

  1. I was wondering the same thing, Daphne. There is the most marvelous variation is just one variation of volunteers. I saw a lot of different seeds, some were black like the lemon queen otherx were part black and part striped, like the Mammoth ones I had growing. I can't wait to see what happens!

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  2. This will be an interesting experiment. I am surprised you haven't had an critters dining, though. I allowed a lot of volunteer sunflowers this year, and the birds have gone to town on them, especially the finches. The seed casings litter the leaves of the squashed below.

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  3. It would be interesting to see what your hybrid would look like. I'd grow a variety because I like sunflowers in different colors, though I don't have a large enough sunny spot left and have had some poor results, particularly with Mexican sunflowers.

    I got two volunteers this year as I had the previous year; considering how widespread they are in other plots, I'm surprised I don't get more.

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  4. It will be fun to watch the outcome. There's a knit hat pattern based on the mathematics of the interlocking spirals of a sunflower's face. . .

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  5. Queen B, thanks.

    Lzyjo, Most of my seeds are black but there are a few that were gray. I love playing scientist in the garden.

    hembogle, I'm really shocked they haven't been eaten yet. There seems to be an over abundance of food for the animals this year.

    Sally, I grew Mexican sunflowers this year too. I collected some seed from them, but they really didn't set a lot.

    Stefaneener, I love that someone made a pattern like that. Very amusing.

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  6. Wow, Daphne, can't wait to see next year's flowers!

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  7. We had sunflowers all around our back porch, and the finches never left them alone. It was a festival of finches. I can't imagine why they are ignoring this seed bounty.

    I can't see what grows for you next year. I love how you are always experimenting!

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  8. What luck to be able to have mature sunflowers. The squirrels ate all mine shortly after they finished flowering.

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  9. our friend Ben, me either. My problem is where to plant them since I don't know how high they will get.

    June, that is probably why I have a degree in Chemistry. I always want to experiment.

    Dan, oh that is too bad. I had one bird on them just after they were finished pollinating, but the bird just picked at it and didn't eat anything as far as I can tell (same head you see in the photo).

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  10. Beautiful pic of the sunflower head. I have not grown sunflowers in years (at least not on purpose). My squirrels plant the sunflowers from our feeders into the soil and I do get a lot of volunteer sprouts in the flower beds as a result - but I always pull them.

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  11. I would imagine that if 2 different sunflowers crossed that there would be different looking seeds within the head. (Assuming the 2 parents have different looking seeds.) This is because the sunflower is really a bunch of little flowers squished together...

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