- Thread starter
- #3,841
heirloomgal
Garden Addicted
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2021
- Messages
- 4,866
- Reaction score
- 15,924
- Points
- 265
- Location
- Northern Ontario, Canada
It's been a year of sunflowers! 
2 different species, 3 varieties of one and about a half dozen of the other. I don't recall ever making an effort to eat the seeds of sunflowers I've grown, so it came as quite a surprise when I tried one yesterday and realized how utterly delicious they are fresh. Very intense and aromatic, the moist shells colored my fingers a shade of blueberry. The birds had started to help themselves, and it was now or never to collect the heads. I hadn't realized until I picked out one of the seeds how close they were to mature. Probably even close enough that they'll finish drying properly in the sun room. I can't get enough of that fresh sunflower seed smell, just wonderful.
The 'Taiyo' is still out there drying up as is little 'Sonja', but 'Lemon Sorbet' will be ready to be fully de-seeded in a week or so. Pretty early really for such large heads. And there are still bees working the quickly fading flowers.
Only 2 sunchokes are flowering right now, 'Corlis Bolton Haynes' and what I think is 'Clearwater'. My goodness they are large plants with tons and tons of flowers! Not all sunchoke varieties will necessarily flower, so I'm curious to see who will do what and if some will remain green by the time their ready to be dug. I am quite excited to see what is going on under the plants...
2 different species, 3 varieties of one and about a half dozen of the other. I don't recall ever making an effort to eat the seeds of sunflowers I've grown, so it came as quite a surprise when I tried one yesterday and realized how utterly delicious they are fresh. Very intense and aromatic, the moist shells colored my fingers a shade of blueberry. The birds had started to help themselves, and it was now or never to collect the heads. I hadn't realized until I picked out one of the seeds how close they were to mature. Probably even close enough that they'll finish drying properly in the sun room. I can't get enough of that fresh sunflower seed smell, just wonderful.
The 'Taiyo' is still out there drying up as is little 'Sonja', but 'Lemon Sorbet' will be ready to be fully de-seeded in a week or so. Pretty early really for such large heads. And there are still bees working the quickly fading flowers.
Only 2 sunchokes are flowering right now, 'Corlis Bolton Haynes' and what I think is 'Clearwater'. My goodness they are large plants with tons and tons of flowers! Not all sunchoke varieties will necessarily flower, so I'm curious to see who will do what and if some will remain green by the time their ready to be dug. I am quite excited to see what is going on under the plants...
