My Pet Sunflower

A month or so ago I was pulling some weeds (well, unwanted weeds that is ;-) from the B Garden and accidentally pulled up a small sunflower.  She came up with very few roots and it was hot as the blazes and I knew if I tried to put her back in the ground she'd never make it.  

I stuck her in a leftover pot of old dirt I had stashed behind the Wool House and tucked her rapidly wilting body into the shade.  She lay collapsed, leaning on the side of my horse trailer for a couple of days, but I kept giving her a drink every time I walked past and she began to slowly perk up.

I staked her up using a dowel rod and some soft yarn and gradually moved her back into the hot sun.  Being a sunflower, she was happy to be back near her friends and she eventually began to grow again and one day I noticed a small bud forming on the top of her head.  

And then she bloomed :-).

 

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Watch a beautiful (and big!) orb weaver spin and knit/weave a large web between the garage roof and the zinnia garden. ❤️ 🕷 ❤️

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Sep 3, 2020 at 7:46pm PDT

 

Instagram followers may remember this video of the spider spinning the web from the corner of the garage roof down to a zinnias.

The sweet sunflower took over when she got big enough :-).

And look at all the pollen she's made for her bee friends.  They've been having quite a party!  

Her big golden petals are starting to fall off, but she has some new buds coming on so the party will continue a little while longer.  And once her blooms are all dried up, she'll have plenty of seeds to feed the birds this winter...but I'll save a few to stick in her old pot next spring :-).