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Historical November–December 2004 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
Whimsical, colorful, inspiring: sunflowers. One summer ago, a friend arrived at my home with a jelly jar filled with sunflowers.
The bright, animated blooms became the center of the room no matter where I placed them.
I made a note to plant them the following season.
When the spring finally arrived this year, I remembered the sunflowers and boldly planted them on the back borders of my lawn.
I soon forgot them and began attending to other plants, until one day I noticed green stalks shooting up from the soil. Everyday the stalks grew taller and taller. One neighbor quipped, “They aren’t going to stop ‘til they reach the sky.” Until the blooms appeared the sunflower plants held a “Jack and the Beanstalk” quality about them and my children made bets on when we would see them touch the sky.
My patience was just beginning to wear, when fresh and lively flowers, more than a foot in diameter, burst open on stalks that stood 8 feet tall.
I saw passersby slowing their pace as they caught sight of the flowers, and 9 out of 10 times, a smile emerged on their face. Coming home everyday was like being greeted by a smiling crowd of friends.
I could not help but smile when I saw them and I noticed it was contagious; a neighbor walking up her stoop said the sunflowers made her so happy when she saw them.
When the blooms began to peak, I cut some down for her and it created a wave of excitement in her household.
I offered some to another neighbor, an artist, who apparently had been waiting to be asked; when the offer was made he had one request, “May I have them in varying degrees of decay?” It wasn’t just the neighbors that enjoyed the sunflowers, but a pair of golden finches found my lawn and made 3 or more meals a day out of the sunflowers. Their brilliant yellow feathers served as camouflage while they dined hanging from the large flowers, I hardly noticed them right away.
I began to look for them and they came everyday until the flowers began to grow weary and the stalks darkened from green to brown.
I cut them down one evening.
My front yard with many of the plants at beautiful lush peaks suddenly seemed void of life.
The signs of the seasons changing were very clearly defined for me with loss of the sunflowers.
I know, though, that in the spring, I will plant more.
Original photograph caption
Sunflower blooms.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, November–December 2004.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times2004_11.pdf, printed page(s) 6; PDF page(s) 6.
