Sunflower Garden at 9 Feet at 90 Days

My sunflower garden finally achieved 9 feet in height on the 90th day! That 90th day was yesterday, June 12, 2014. A couple of days earlier, June 10th, I measured the tallest sunflower plant at 105 inches; that was short of nine feet by only three inches. At 79 days, my sunflower garden was nearly 8 feet tall. On the 81st day, the tall plant measured 8 feet 1 inch!

NINE FOOT SUNFLOWER PLANT

9 Foot Tall Sunflower Plant in My Sunflower Garden
Nine Feet at 90 Days on June 12, 2014

Take a look at the stem of that tallest sunflower plant. Pretty impressive, isn't it. It has a number of buds which will ultimately bloom into pretty sunflower blossoms.

The evening of May 29th and May 30th, I was busy installing 5 foot wooden stakes to my sunflower plants. I finished on the morning of May 31st. I installed 30 separate wooden stakes and two full spools of landscape twine to completely stake the plants right before the start of Hurricane Season!

My Sunflower Garden at 9 Feet at 90 Days on June 12, 2014

I must say it is mixed blessings that we had that stormy and windy weather the end of May. It was because of the initial damage to my garden that I got all my plants shored up. And, that has helped me to achieve the extra height in my plants.

CHARTING THE PLANT GROWTH

1. 23 days - 6 inches wide by 7 inches across by 6 inches tall = 0.5 ft.
2. 30 days - 9 inches wide by 10 inches across by 12 inches tall = 1 ft.
3. 37 days - 11 inches wide by 13 inches across by 18 inches tall = 1.5 ft.
4. 42 days - 24 inches tall = 2 ft.
5. 51 days - 38 inches tall = 3 ft. 2 in.
6. 56 days - 49 inches tall = 4 ft. 1 in.
7. 62 days - 3 plants at 59 inches tall = 4 ft. 11 in.
8. 65 days - 2 plants at 63 inches; 1 plant at 66 inches tall = 5 ft. 6 in.
9. 70 days - 2 plants at 73 inches; 3 plants at 74 inches = 6 ft. 2 in.
10. 72 days - 9 plants over 72 inches; 1 plant at 78 inches tall  = 6 ft. 6 in.
11. 79 days - 93 inches = 7 ft. 9 in.
12. 80 days - 96 inches = 8 ft.
13. 81 days - 97 inches = 8 ft. 1 in.
14. 88 days - 105 inches = 8 ft. 9 in.
15. 90 days - 108 inches tall = 9 ft.

My Sunflower Garden at 9 Feet at 90 Days on June 12, 2014

See if you can find the 9 foot tall sunflower plant in the picture above. Do you see it? If you look at the previous garden photo, it is not easily apparent which is the tallest plant. There are easily four plants that are similar in growth for being the tallest. The tallest plant is in the first, outside row and is just left of center. Look toward the roof of the house and you can see it rising above.

My Sunflower Garden at 9 Feet at 90 Days on June 12, 2014

OK, it should be easier in this last photo to identify the tall plant. Look to the middle of the garden and then just left. See that yellow sunflower plant reaching for the sky? An optical illusion shows it about a foot and a half above the roof. You also get a great idea of how many plants I have and how many blossoms. Probably a couple hundred plants and several hundred blossoms counting all the multiple ones per plant! Amazing sunflowers.

It has been incredible to experience this sunflower journey. I owe it all to Burpee Sunflower Seeds! That's all it took for my first garden in 2013. I had a little more than one hundred plants from 5 packets of seeds. Now, my 2014 garden is all from my harvested seeds from the first garden. This year, I have held off cutting off the sunflower heads for harvesting the seeds. Since my plants are staked, the stems can support the weight of the heavy heads. Now, let's hope that the windy weather doesn't take out any more plants. It's 2:24pm here on June 13th, and some really windy weather has just rolled in. Fingers crossed!!

I just stopped to chat with our mail carrier. I had given him several packets of sunflower seeds from The Sunflower Project. He gave a few packets to a coworker at the local USPS office; she had planned on planting them in front of the facility. He said his plants are around 3 feet tall since he didn't plant them all that long ago. "Boy, they are really growing ... they love all this rain!" I said, "Let me know when you have flowers, I want to see pictures!" Stay tuned.

Oh ... and I want to see pictures of YOUR own sunflowers and sunflower gardens. Please feel free to share YOUR own photos with me. Don't take mine. You know? Be authentic. Be original ... be the best that YOU can be ... stop trying to be me.

Sunflower Garden at 79 Days Almost 8 Feet

Since I last reported one week ago, on the status of my sunflower garden at 72 days, there has been a lot of stuff happening meteorologically. Last Sunday, we reported 9 plants were well over 72 inches with the tallest single plant at 78 inches tall = 6 ft. 6 in. Today, that tallest single plant is at 93 inches; only three inches shy of 8 ft.! That's fifteen inches of growth in one week.

THE TALLEST SUNFLOWER PLANT

The Tallest Sunflower Plant at 93 inches at 79 days
Photo Taken: June 1, 2014 by JaguarJulie Ann Brady

SO MUCH WEATHER

What about all that weather? Over the past week, there have been quite a few days of rain along with some pretty heavy winds. Each day, along with the heavy rains, I have seen hail. The hail has been about the size of garbanzo beans and there was quite a bit of it.

Because I was seeing a lot of growth throughout my sunflower garden, along with lots of multiple, large blossoms, the plants were a bit top heavy. Needless to say, the rains and winds ended up taking out several of my larger and smaller plants.

Sunflower Garden Impacted by Wind
Photo Taken: May 30, 2014 5:50pm

Sunflower Garden Impacted by Wind
Photo Taken: May 30, 2014 5:50pm

You can see in the two previous photos, some of the wind damage to the sunflower garden. I cut out a number of large and small sunflower plants which had been toppled or were bent on the stem. I was able to fill four different vases with a variety of the sunflower blossoms - so that would be the positive!

STAKING THE SUNFLOWER GARDEN

On Friday and Saturday, I started to add garden stakes throughout my sunflower garden after I had cut away many damaged plants. I used three packages of six each, 5 ft. tall garden stakes from K-Mart along with two packages of six each, 5 ft. tall garden stakes from Lowe's. The K-Mart stakes were much nicer than those at Lowe's.

Sunflower Garden Staked : Tallest Sunflower Plant at 93 inches at 79 days
Photo Taken: June 1, 2014 by JaguarJulie Ann Brady

If you look at the plant right above the blue ceramic flower pot, you can detect the tallest plant at nearly 8 ft. I am so thankful it survived all the wind, rain, and hail. You can also make out the various 5 ft. garden stakes throughout the 4 rows. I used the type of wooden stakes like the Bond 95006 6-Count 5-Feet Hardwood Stakes.

Sunflower Garden Staked : Tallest Sunflower Plant at 93 inches at 79 days
Photo Taken: June 1, 2014 by JaguarJulie Ann Brady

When I added the thirty 5 ft. garden stakes throughout the four rows of the sunflower garden, I used two different types of landscaping twine. I ran out of the bright lime green twine and used a forest green twine rather like Gardener's Blue Ribbon 200 Feet Soft Green Garden Twine T028A. I am thankful, in hindsight, that I ran out of the lime green version because the other forest green twine was easier to tie and seemed to make more secure knots.

It took me two days to put in all the garden stakes and an additional morning to finish off with the twine. I pretty much secured all the plants and strung some twine to connect the various garden stakes so that all plants were supported. On the outside edges, I extended the twine from the garden stakes to the metal edging to add extra support.

I would appreciate YOUR support in not stealing my copyrighted images for your own purposes. It is not a good habit to get into to.

I am hopeful that the plants will hold up to the wind and not snap the stems! Stay tuned.