Peachy Strawberry Sunflowers…a new breed of sunflowers just came out that smell like peaches and boast the color of strawberries. No, not really. Those are just the things I wanted to write about today and couldn’t think of a witty title.
My first ever home-grown strawberry flower. Let’s hope the snails and slugs give it a chance to turn into fruit. They’ve been up to no good on my Sequoia strawberry plants. I’ve been using Ortho Elementals Snail & Slug killer which is designed for organic gardening. It claims to be safe to use around pets and children. The catch, however is that it takes 3-6 days to actually kill the little buggers. When I find them myself, they make a great Silkie snack.
I am beyond excited about my Mammoth sunflower seedlings. These emerged in record time and all but one have now popped up. It’s amazing to think that if all goes well this summer they will be 6′ tall. These are drought tolerant and do well in poor soils. Perfect! They will be planted on the back edge of my veggie garden, so as to not shade anything, all the while still facing south. It’s important to keep in mind when planting sunflowers that the heads will grow toward the sun, so if you want to enjoy those beauties, position them in your garden where the heads will still be visible to you as they angle toward that bright star in the sky.
The current center of attention in the garden. It’s as if it screams, “Look at me!” This peach tree is currently at it’s peak of spring flowers and every year it leaves me in awe, as I think it will for you, too.
Bountiful Backyard 
Beautiful! and helpful tips on the sunflowers! Such fun watching all your hard work sprout!
Good luck keeping those Mammoth sunflowers down to only 6′. Mine all grew 10′ or higher last year! The stems were like small tree trunks, and I still have stumps in the ground where we had to just saw them off.
Your peach blossoms are delightful.
My goodness…10′!? Did you also have to stake them? I’ve read that you pretty much have to unless they’re against a fence. I’m glad you liked the peach blossoms! 🙂
I had to take cotton clothes line rope and loop it around the 6′ fence posts and sunflowers….each plant. The one I didn’t tie up fell over and broke, even though it was against the fence. I was wrong about the 10′ height. Looking back at my blog, I judged them to be around 13′. Here is what I wrote about them, with photo:
http://annieskitchengarden.blogspot.com/2011/08/august-27-2011-sunflowers.html