Sunflowers - The Gorgeous Garden Decoy • Community Center for Insects
I plant sunflowers because they attract and distract.
They are like the community center for wildlife and insects. The 'common ground' for many forms of life. Sunflowers are great decoys that bring a great deal of activity away from your garden. When planted strategically they can provide many benefits to your garden. Basically, sacrificial planting is what I'm talking about.
Sunflowers For The Bees
The pollinators will thank you. They love to 'work' sunflowers for nectar and they believe they are getting the best end of the deal. However, I think the gardener really gets the best end of the deal.
Sunflowers also attract wasps because of the abundance of prey for them to feast upon. The wasp is a caterpillars worst nightmare.
Always A Show
It is never a dull moment with sunflowers. All day and night, they are exploding with activity. Aphids suck the nutrients from the plant, while ants farm the aphids for a the dew that collects on them. Ants are constantly 'farming' these aphids by scraping their bellies to collect the honeydew. Birds gather to eat the pests that gather to eat the plants. Bees and wasps patrol the plants like watchmen and aid in the growth and development of the flowers. It's pretty 'wild' (no pun intended) to watch and never a dull moment.
Watch Them Work
This controlled chaos is entertaining to me. I love to see Mother Nature 'doing her thang'. It's pretty awesome.
I keep them happy, they keep my garden happy. Like I said, I still believe I'm getting the best end of the deal!
We keep the bees busy and they help us increase production of our fruits and vegetables. I think that is a wonderful harmony.
Anyone else plant sunflowers? Do you plant them for aesthetics or utility or both? I'd love to hear from my fellow steemian-greenthumbs!
Lovely grow-pro. Wat are the benefits of sunflower to human health?
Thanks @yaanivapeji that's a great question! I found a few health benefits from sunflower seeds:
Health Benefits of Sunflowers
Thank you for your valuable comment!
Thank you for the information too.
Oooh that's so cool I learned a lot from your article, I didn't know that sunflowers were used as a decoy and that is too cool! I have them all around my front yard garden. I did notice the bees sure love them, I'm going to be keeping a closer eye now to see what other activity I can find on them!
I'm grateful that @venomnymous resteemed this post so I was able to see it!
Thank you for sharing @lyndsaybowes, Great shots there! Yeah, @venomnymous is awesome, NO DOUBT! I use sunflowers as decoys and it works pretty well. Notice mine sunflowers are not quite as pretty as yours - eaten and chewed up petals (from Japanese Beetles)!
It is a bright and attractive to many creatures, so I call it the 'community center' for bugs. It really helps my 100+ tomato plants from falling victim. Pests seem to prefer eating sunflowers and daisies over anything I've grown. So I plant those sacrificially 😆 away from my garden.
Thanks for stopping by and feel free to drop any other 'sunflower sightings' here anytime!
I greatly appreciate the support, THANK YOU!
I thought yours were super beautiful, I just LOVED the red colouration :) I thought the chewed upness was just from natural wilting for the end of their season. I guess the sunflowers are sure doing their job in your garden! Beautiful Angelic Plants they are!!
The red ones are a variety called "Velvet Queen" and are a branching variety. I love them! Great for cutting and it promotes more blooms when cut. I grew the giant varieties, but they show is over with one flower. This is my first year with the branching varieties and they've worked really well occupying pests. Will be doing these again for sure, @lyndsaybowes
I like them but this year they were popping up like weeds in spots I didn't want them in. Nonetheless we have teddy bears, citrus and mix of others lol
I had one of the Mammoth variety self seed this year. I left it, but they do pop up in unwanted places often. That's why I plant them on their own - it attracts pest away from garden. Plus, they can drop all the seed they want 😆
Haha yup. It's actually my moms fault. Last year she had sunflowers in a row near the middle of the garden so any seeds that dropped last year were popping up all over the first like 4 weeks of the season lol
It's all good now. We have the sunflowers up by the fence between the raspberry bushes and corn.