The Summer of 2014 has been truly magical, staying warm until just a few days ago! I’m afraid I find myself already looking forward to 2015 and when I heard that the Plant of The Year was going to be the sunflower, I got pretty excited. You get so much for so little with these wonderful statuesque happy plants. Pop in a tiny seed in the spring and just watch all that growth. Now sunflowers are being sold as edible plants, but even without this they certainly always make me smile – and the bonus of providing food for birds over the winter – and giving numerous seeds for the following year making them a very attractive option. I discovered this year that if you should happen to have a glut, they last looking good for at least three weeks in a vase.
I’m certainly hoping we can make a really big splash of sunflowers around the towns next year – I’ll have lots of seeds to give away and the Spring Plant Swap could be a great opportunity to share out different varieties with each other. Something to plot and plan and enjoy the thought of over the coming winter months.