The sunflowers are growing

I am realizing this year that this particular spot by our deck may no longer be sunny enough for the Mammoth Sunflowers.  The first ones I planted had skinny stems and were not like ones in the past.  The roofers that came to build us a new roof last week also damaged some of them unintentionally, so I replanted last week.

This is what is coming up now. 

They look healthier than the last batch.  The seeds were also not inundated with rain as the last ones were  before sprouting.  That makes a huge difference too, I believe.

The ones in our sons little plots which are from the same bag of seeds, are doing very well.  They are in full sun however and I'm seeing this is what makes the sunflowers grow to greater heights.  The more sun, the better the plant will be.  So we may be moving our plot from the deck to another spot next year.  The years of sunflowers surrounding our deck may be over.  The Black Eyed Susans have taken over and they are perennials and I love them.  They will come back each year.  I don't want to pull them up.

This is the boys garden bed right now.

It is small, but their sunflowers are doing well.  So is Philip's mini sugar pumpkin.

Joseph's sunflowers

Our first colored sunflowers of the year..... burgundy and an autumn mix of color.  The neat thing about these is that I didn't plant them.  They just came up in the flower beds.  Thank you bird friends!

 We're waiting on the Citrus sunflowers and colored autumn mix to grow.  They are coming up too.

I'm thinking right now it will be late July when they bloom.