Monday, July 27, 2009

The Patient Growth of a Mammoth Sunflower


The blooms have just emerged on two of our mammoth sunflowers. Less than four months ago, they were seeds smaller than the nail on my pinkie. I'm about 6'3", so you have a point of reference for just how utterly gargantuan these things are. These plants belong to the variety that produce edible seeds, and while we only have four that survived, they are quite stunning.

I'm sure there's a lesson about writing or patience or life in general in there somewhere...I'm too busy to think about it right now.

__________

In a fit of rather apt timing, our local paper (the Lawrence Journal-World) published a story about online comments. Given last week's maelstrom surrounding one of my posts, I thought the article was interesting, at least. If you read the article, make sure to read some of the comments. ;)

16 comments:

Barry Napier said...

that sunflowers are growing to enormous sizes...soon, they shall control the WORLD!!!!

Cate Gardner said...

Sunflowers are weird things... I'd love a garden full of them but they creep certain family members out.

Katey said...

Sunflowers are beautiful, and have weird creepy potential. With a combination like that you can't lose.

My Dad's family are all farmers and my great uncle was about your size; he used to have a whole bunch of 'em. Crazy how huge they get with a little patience.

Anonymous comments are... odd things. Anonymity and the nom de plume are old devices when it comes to politics, morality, and other matters of taste. People were putting out anonymous pamphlets about the evils of the Boston Tea Party and the Character of Thomas Jefferson back in the day, and they got it from the Old Country. It'll never die.

But it's difficult not to remain incredulous without a name to back up the words, innit?

Rebecca Nazar said...

I'm 5'3" and my sunflowers stand at my hip and no blossoms yet. Little sun here, I'm afraid, poor things.

Alan W. Davidson said...

Loved the sunflowers. When we lived in SW Ontario we grew some one year, but no where near as big as that. It's too cold here, and the season too short to grow anything of any size.

Regarding anonymity...I scanned trough some of the comments. Wow! For such a small place, people sure have a lot to say. Guess it's not so much a lot of people, but the same dozen sniping back and forth at one another. You stayed out of it, didn't you? And who is that Marion woman? If she's so controversial that newspaper should give her her own column...I'm all for freedom of speech, but with provisions. I have no problem identifying myself and backing up my comments.

Brendan P. Myers said...

Look like Triffids.

They start walking . . . run!

Fox Lee said...

I looked at the sunflower, noted its hugeness, and promptly thought of voracious killer birds.

; )

Aaron Polson said...

Barry - they made me think a bit of Triffids.

Cate - we have cultivated fields full of them here. Time elapsed video of them chasing the sun is rather odd.

Katey - most field flowers aren't the Mammoth, but pretty big buggers anyway. Ain't nature grand?

But Rebecca, at least your sunflowers will not step on you.

Alan - yeah, Marion opens the ol' mouth at anything, but I respect the fact that he (and it is a he...one of those "goes both ways" names) puts his name on everything.

Brendan - just what I told Barry. Spooky things, really.

Natalie - can you imagine the bees that could benefit from something that size?

K.C. Shaw said...

My grandmother used to tell me how, when she was a young mother and lived in Kansas, a few times when my mom and her little brother were acting up, Grandmom would pull the car over and grab a few sunflowers from the nearest field. She said they made perfect switches to smack the kids' bottoms with: they made an enormous CRACK, but the stems are hollow and don't hurt at all. :) That's my sunflower story.

We have some in our yard this summer, but not the mammoth kind. That one's really impressive!

Anonymous said...

One of the most magnificent things that I ever saw was an old house burning down in a sunflower field. I pulled the car over and watched them put it out. Your sunflower is certainly stunning.

Off to read that post about online comments. I'm certainly interested.

-Mercedes

Aaron Polson said...

K.C. - the sound hurts the worst.

Mercedes - the flowers have even filled out a tad more. Amazing, really.

BT said...

I don't come around for a few days and the world turns on its head!

Removing posts, cover art, and giant sunflowers preparing to walk the earth.

Next you'll be announcing a book deal...I hope.

Danielle Birch said...

I'm thinking Jack and the Beanstalk.

Carrie Harris said...

I second what BT said!

Jamie Eyberg said...

sunflowers don't last long around here. The farmers don't like them binding up their equipment.

QBall said...

This is pretty peculiar. I was googling around to find out when i can harvest the seeds of MY mammoth sunflower plants and found this blog. I started reading the comments and was intrigued. Then i realized that this wasn't an abandoned blog and your post was last week! All of my plants have flowered in the last few weeks as well.