Anomaly Shmanomaly - The Continuing Sunflower Saga

So it turns out that the multi-bloom sunflower stalk that is growing in front of my house is not an anomaly. It is simply the wild version of the domestic Sunflower. When I was researching the various Sunflower plants on Google, I had a brain fart. Instead of searching for multi-“bloom” Sunflowers, I searched for multi-“bulb” Sunflowers. Doing that obviously resulted in no results.

After making the correct search, I came up with dozens of websites containing information about multi-bloom sunflowers. On www.sunflowernsa.com they explain the multi-bloom sunflowers in their FAQ section:

“The cultivated sunflower has only one flower or head. But the wild cousins found growing in ditches and other areas throughout much of North America have multiple flowers and heads. Multiples of 20 and more heads are common. The 'wilds' are the genetic basis of today's domesticated sunflower.”

Well there you have it. The mystery is solved. Since I was so interested in the Sunflowers growing in my yard, I did a little foraging around to see what else was growing.


Heather was growing some peppers in a little pot and I took a picture of the plant. You can see two tiny peppers just starting to grow.

Believe this or not, this is a very tiny strawberry growing right next to my walkway to the front door. Apparently somebody was eating a strawberry and dropped a seed or two. Cute, isn’t it?

At another corner of my property, these pretty yellow flowers are flourishing. They are flourishing simply because it’s been dry and I haven’t mowed the lawn in a while. We did not plant these flowers; however, Heather does have a bird feeder so it is possible that birds dropped some seeds and this is how they started. I don’t know what kind of flowers they are but I figured I would get a picture of them before I mow this weekend. Hey, at least the peppers and Sunflowers are safe…

Note: A special thanks to Linda Fanelli, for letting me borrow her really nice digital camera. I only have a web cam and it is difficult to take pictures anywhere except directly in front of the pc. (The picture of the peanut butter dream bar was taken with my web cam.)