Why I Oughta...

Like most every year in the past, I received a nice set of Sunflower seeds for my birthday.  This year, I received five different varieties including:  Carmel Hybrid, Velvet Queen, Italian White, Autumn Beauty Mix and Evening Sun (below).  I put these down in a the rear, south fence line amongst some natural areas.  I've posted a few times over the years.  The first time was in 2011 when I had our initial growth  in our backyard by our playground.  By 2013, I moved the location and planted them in the front of our old fence .  And had some good growth.  In 2014, I went, again, with a wide variety .  And in 2016, I received some seeds , but since we had already moved out, I don't remember if I ever planted these at Equation Boy/Man's house in Elmhurst.  I soaked these seeds for about 4 hours before planting them, so I'm hoping that they'll germinate quickly and we'll get some decent growth, knowing they take about three months (Mid/late August) for bloo

Continuing the tradition of being gifted sunflower seeds for my birthday each Spring, these three above are the varieties that are sitting on my desk right now. Here's a look at last year's packet . Here's the post showing off all the different varieties I planted last year in 2014 . Here's the post showing off some of the 2013 sunflowers already growing . And... here's a post from 2011 showing off some of the blooming flowers . Every other year, I knew right where these were going to go, but now that we're living down the street in Equation Boy/Man's place, I'm not quite sure where to put these.  I'm thinking that it might make sense to put them on the back fenceline?  The packets say to wait until May to plant them, so we'll know soon enough and as long as the birds/squirrels don't get to the seeds, hopefully we'll see some photos of them standing up strong this summer.  

The second pack ( after last week's Apollo Ring variety I posted about ) is this Mammoth sunflower.  This one will tower (12 feet tall!) over the rest of them and I'll plan on putting the seeds in the far back row against the fenceline.  I think a few more weeks need to pass and then we'll get them in the ground.

I get a set of Sunflower seed packets each year for my birthday.  It is a nice tradition that I've come to enjoy.  For the past few years, the person who gives me the seeds has been getting pretty creative in terms of the variety of seeds. This year, they gave me a few packets - and I'll run through them in different posts here - starting with this Apollo's Ring Hybrid (GIRASOL Apollo's Ring Hybrid).    These ones aren't super tall.  They are listed as topping out at 5-6', so they'll be a nice compliment to some of the taller ones. Here's the post showing off all the different varieties I planted last year in 2014 . Here's the post showing off some of the 2013 sunflowers already growing . And... here's a post from 2011 showing off some of the blooming flowers .

Here's the full photos (below) of the varieties that the girls and I planted this week right in front of our fence line on the south side of our house. It is a nice mix of some giant ones and some smaller, more colorful varieties. Here's a post on last year's sunflowers .   It looks like some of them re-seeded themselves as we had a few seedlings coming up in the same spot this year. And... here's a post from 2011 showing the annual sunflower planting .