The Last Signs of Summer.

This year I planted 6 giant Sunflowers, (my all time favourite flower!)and while planting them I came across a self set plant. They pretty much look after themselves and never fail to amaze me. How can such a tiny seed less than 1 cm long grow into such a huge plant several metres tall with a whacking great big flower the size of a dinner plate ? All that happens in the space of 8 weeks.

Sun flowers are for me 'summer' in a plant.

One of the plants was not in a hurry to flower, while all the others had obvious buds, this one refused to stop growing. 6 of them flowered before this one decided that it would make an effort. It finally flowered last week and its massive the head is twice the size of the others, being a true maverick it decided to face my neighbours garden so I went around last night and got this shot, look at the lovely grey sky behind it!!

We only have a small garden and they dominate the space, dad gave me some dahlias which I planted underneath, he gave me six mixed plants which all turned out to be bright orange!! In the same border I have nasturtiums and cream roses, I am all co-ordinated this year!!

Once the sunflowers have finally finished their display, I will behead them and hang the heads up to dry in the conservatory, there should be loads of seeds for the birds and some to save for next year and a fresh crop of sunny giants.