Rochester friend and regular reader J. sent me sunflower seeds as a housewarming present. I duly followed the instructions on the box, planted the seeds in the small container provided, watered, gave it sun, and waited. Four of the six seeds sprouted, seemed to do well, and then their growth stalled and the tiny leaf color began to fade.

Happily, gardening friend Nicki took a look and said, “They need to be in the ground — plant them right now. They’ve done what they can do in the pot.” Hadn’t occurred to me as a gardening novice — I thought I’d notice when they looked too big for the pot, which certainly hadn’t happened. But I followed Nicki’s advice. Another gardening friend, Laurie, brought a bigger sunflower to plant next to the tiny one, for encouragement.

I was afraid I’d waited too long, too late in the summer, to plant, that nothing would happen.

Voila! The little one has now grown past the bigger one and is blooming up a storm. I’m thrilled. 🙂

The formerly little sunflower, the one I call Triumph, is on the left in the bottom pic.