The Sunflowers Have Gone to Seed!

Grab your seed packets and follow me–the sunflowers are ready for harvest!

“They are?  But how do you know?”

“Remember how awful they looked a while back and we thought it was due to the recent cold snap?  Well, guess what?  They aren’t wilting because of the cold–they’re wilting because they’re ready for harvest!  (Remember, I’m new at this sunflower business, too!) Hip-hip-hooray!”

Woo-hoo–how fun is that? At first the florets were beautiful and bright yellow.

Then they began to dry up and turn brown–our initial cause for alarm.

Next they shriveled back to reveal a hard-bodied flower head.

And now we can pick them!

Or let Mother Nature take it from here and allow the seeds to dry on the flower head.  If we’re active gardeners, we can take it upon ourselves and cut the large flower head off, place it in a safe and well-ventilated area indoors and allow it to dry.

Definitely the latter, if you ask me.  It will ward off loss to wild critters who otherwise might want to run off with our fabulous bounty!  According to SunflowerGuide.com, where you can learn all you ever wanted to know about sunflowers, you can also wrap a brown paper bag around the flower head outdoors and collect your seeds as they fall while at the same time, protecting them from critter snatching. 🙂

Hm.  My vote is still to bring the whole kit and kaboodle inside.  Easier, safer and less anxiety.  A gardener has to sleep, you know!  And I won’t sleep well knowing there are a host of furry little animals after my seeds.  No siree bob, so cut off the stem (about a foot below the flower head) and dry that puppy indoors! Ours are actually just outside the classroom hanging from a fence, but safe nonetheless.

I mean, we worked hard for those seeds.  And while we like to share (did you see our pine cone bird seed feeders?), we are choosy about the where and the when of said sharing.

You can always pick them one by one from the flower head too, sort of snacking as you go!  Check Kid Buzz section of the website for how-to instructions on the pine cone bird seed feeder.  Easy and fun!