Sunflowers

are amazing. I have tried planting a sunflower when I was younger but I did not care for it right and it died. So now, We were given some seeds and I took the chance to plant it even if I was unsure if I would be able to make them grow.
This is my "first" sunflower which I have successfully grown. And it is a milestone to me.

I would call it a journey, seeing this plant from seed, sprout, and into what it is now and soon, in death.

This will be my first time entering this contest and I am delighted since I have been planting roses lately and sunflowers and I have been doing gardening more than ever before
Thank you @knopka145 for the initiative. Plants and flowers are worth it!

I started with 11 seeds

Meet my baby sunflower sprouts

Funny Story

So I had 11 seeds, when they grew a little bit taller having four leaves or so,
4 did not live, they sort of wilted and died.
Then my dog chewed another 4 of them cause I left the pots too close to the dog house.
then our cat chewed on the other 2.

I was literally left with one plant. It was almost mission impossible since I did not know if this could survive. I was praying hard it would survive. It did.

My dad kept it on a higher place and it stayed there for a few weeks and it grew into this.
For some time i was focusing on my rose plants and getting them to grow better. I sort of just left this for a long time.

At this point I was super happy at how this was going.

One day I had figured it needed more sunlight, so I put it on the ground again where there would be more sunlight for it. And I was totally surprised at its height!

My thoughts were wow they really do grow tall! it was taller than my son but not me. I was excited for it to grow more and even more excited for it to bloom.

I put some fertillizer on it a lot maybe that was the reason why it grew fast in just a week. I started to notice its growth "spurts" on January. The fertillizer I put is just vegetable and fruit peels and tea leaves and water from rice washings.

And then it grows taller than me slowly

Visiting it everyday is so happy and anticipating it to bloom

When it bloomed

When it started showing yellow petals I was soooo happy, from here on I took pics of it blooming fully

The sunflower looks like its covering its face. The fully bloomed sunflower is the one where there are no more green parts left inside the center. it is when the green parts have become the orange or yellow flowers where the bees get the pollen. So the sunflowers flower isnt the golden crown outside theyre the 2000 flowers inside it that later on becomes the seeds.

By this point I could not take decent pics without me tip toed or without a ladder to climb.

Blooming Stage

So the blooming stage takes time and the flowers don't wilt until it is pollinated and produces seeds.
My plant "CHAMP" yes I named it champ cause he survived all those casualties haha
Champ the sunflower had aroun 16 buds and so far only 9 have opened and the other ten and eleventh one is still blooming (I will show a pic)
These are not chronologically arranged but these are a few of my favorite shots of it.

I always wanted to visit a sunflower field and take pictures but I have not gone to one but what better pictures of flowers are there than those that you take care of yourself?

Champ is a bit old now

Here are some recent videos of bees visiting and a pic of it kinda drooping, the seeding stage is making it a bit crooked I think.

Heres my favorite screenshot of a video the bee is seen so clearly

Here's the video

This pic I took randomly taking a pic and this lucky shot I got to catch a bee

This morning some flowers on the lower part are opening, theres still a lot more to go!

here's a smaller sunflower at the bottom part
there are smaller ones I am curious how they will turn out

• For now I think I will need to study when to harvest the seeds
• storage and life span

And lately I saw a blue striped bee visit!

The video wasn't so bright but I am so happy to see this could help give them pollen.

it is so cute its so fat and its got black and blue stripes. It just buzzed hovering in the air. amazing

Group shot

And I finally get a picture with a sunflower like I wanted and I learned how to take care of them.

I take so many pics almost daily, I just admire the beauty of these graceful and uplifting plants.

I even made them my inspiration for my artworks

I posted these on my blog, I posted weapons with rose and sunflower designs too.

The End

Thank you for spending time to watch my journey

I would really highly suggest taking care of plants, flowers and vegetables. It may not sound interesting at first but once you try it feels great to see growth and soon they produce great beauty or fruit, good for health and life. It would be worth it, something to give, something to learn

• you increase your mental and physical health
• You help pollinators
• you save money if you plant your own food
• or you can reproduce flowering plants good for selling or activities like flower pressing

I get to keep the dry petals and put them in bottles or resin jewelry. Even the flowers become a special part of you, and your memory it is something you won't easily let go of.

Thank you and see you!

+ JMJ + AMDG +