Sunflower

zomble · Post by **zomble** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 7:39 am

Do you have somewhere in your garden for the birds? I made a rough patch border.

I don't like my garden, no wait..I hate this garden. It came with four aging Leylandi, brown with hole here and there, it also has plastic sheeting where it should be black weed fabric, then they should have laid nice decrative stone.

The area is wet through in winter and bone dry in summer which is a haven for shooting grass which the plastic was supposed to supress. If you smack the Leylandi its dust time.

So to pass the time while I wait to be re-housed (soon I hope) I created a place (small border) and threw loads of seeds in which I did'nt want. The only seed that came up as it transpires was a Sunflower. I never realised just how beautiful these are and will grow lots next season...oh, and a Grannies Bonnet (Aqualega)

The border is now once more back to its usual state full of weeds.

I threw in some seeding Violas so they should germinate new year. everytime a plant dies (flowers) I throw it in my dump border to rot down.

Anyway here is the begining of the Sunflower seed head, I had to stand on a small stool to take the Image. The Sunflower is still growing and currently stands at over 5ft from the bottom of the stem that touches the soil, not the root under the soil..

Two Images.

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 7:41 am

I like sunflowers but W doesn't so none here.
My favorite wild birds to feed are hummingbirds. They love my Hibiscus, Campsis, Ruelliea and Lantana.
As they are neotropical migrants, it makes the garden seem especially tropical.

canadianplant · Post by **canadianplant** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 9:12 am

Same here eric. Tons of humming birds around here. Any plant thats native to mexico or S america they love. The few i seen in my yard last year were all around my Canna.

Zombie... My whole yard is for the birds. They keep pests away. We feed the crows too and they dont go near my garbage! Then again, when my berry bushes start to fruit next year, i might be saying something different lol

zomble · Post by **zomble** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 12:59 pm

Thanks guys!!

I may have the Sunflower but you have what I have wanted since I made friends with Canadians at a forum, forum is now gone as are the friends.

I love Hummers. I had some lols with friends about planting all red plants in my garden to attract Hummers. Course they won't come here...too cold.

I don't get a lot of birds, I got more where I used to live before wigan.

I love Hibis, especially tropical ones. I bought one from Tenerife airport...I never saw any flower so big. I had it all winter on the window sill and I could tell from the bud it was going to be huge. Anyway I went to bed, left the curtains closed. When I opened the curtains it was like............whoa, stand well back.

The tropical ones only last 24 hours.

And the same flower:

canadianplant, what pests do your birds eat, mine eat slugs and snails...

canadianplant · Post by **canadianplant** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 6:04 pm

Well half a humming birds diet is insects (BTW, its not that you are to cold, they arent native to Europe if im not mistakin). All birds eat some sort of insect. Theres always birds in the yard and on the ground, munchin away on somethin!

I love this website. But its only North American species (unless they are naturalized from somewhere else)

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Ruby ... ingbird/id

Birds love berries. And they need trees (something the UK has lacked for 1000 years).

Nice hibiscus. I have one to but its the North American native,H Moscheutos. Survived all the way up here in Thunder Bay! You guys can get away with all sorts of things there. Especialy the west, and south west coast.

zomble · Post by **zomble** » Fri Aug 05, 2011 10:40 am

Strange you should think we don't have many trees canadianplant,

We seem to have a lot lol We have loads of trees that bear fruit and berries. The Rowan tree for example bears red berries all winter and spring. We have other trees on housing estates, and we have woodlands. We would'nt have had woodlands if Cameron had -- had his way, he wanted to sell them. We got a petition and saved them.

My friend in Canada had the Hummers eating out of her hand. They are not native to here you are right, such a pity.

The Hibi you have is lovely:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2006_ ... lyhock.JPG Why has Wiki named it Hollyhock i wonder?

When you look before enlargement its a 'Cultivar of Hibiscus moscheutos'.

How weird, thanks for your link to the birds.

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Fri Aug 05, 2011 11:47 am

Zomble...

I tried to delete all those blank lines in your post...it didn't work.

Doubt you've got a virus.
Maybe you just rested a book on your Enter button before you sent your post, then went and had a cup of tea?

Barb

zomble · Post by **zomble** » Sat Aug 06, 2011 10:47 am

Honest Barb,

I got only as far as first few letters when all hell broke loose and that bar was like somthing not right lmaoooooooooo As fast as I took it back up to write, back down it went.

I did like I said in off topic and run the Ensete full sytem scan and it was a Java two threats. I need to remove Java from my system even though Esete got rid of the threats.

I also did a defrag, all seems settled but need that format.

What is Java good for besides threats