Sunflowers!

Several weeks ago, I bought sunflower seed packets from our local gardening center.  "Giant" sunflowers, which the package said will grow up to 16 feet tall, "Mammoth" - 8-12' tall, and then two varieties that should get to be about 4 feet tall, one red and the other a "Moonflower" - with petals a paler yellow than other sunflowers.  I got some edging that's been on the side of the house since we moved in, and made a flower bed especially for the sunflowers.

Then I took out my garden book and sketched out plant placement based on potential flower height and how the bed is angled toward the lanai.

I planted the seeds in little starter pots and waited for them to sprout. The "Giant" ones sprouted very quickly, the others took a few days longer.

The pictures above were taken on May 4th.  I finally got the poor, neglected, perhaps even abused, seedlings into the ground this afternoon.  I forgot to look at my notebook, with my carefully-planned planting sketch, because I just wanted to get them into the ground before they completely expired.

 

If you zoom in, you can see the twisted, stunted seedlings trying to stand up, now that they have space to stretch their roots and find some stability and balance.  I also gave them plant food and a thorough watering, in an attempt to assuage some of my guilt from having ignored them for so long.  I do feel a little better, and they look like they feel better as well.  I hope so.