A Rescued Sunflower

Leaving for work one cold dark February morning this year, I noticed this sunflower growing from the wall which leads down to the front road.

A sunflower, fighting the odds for life

The seed must have been dropped by a bird from the table of seeds we keep for them at the top of the steps and by good fortune found itself a lodging place where it managed to set out some roots.

I was amazed at how the sunflower had managed to not only escape the hungry beaks of the garden birds but also find a rooting spot some five foot high in a wall of concrete and stone and germinate in what was still the freezing depths of a UK winter. Recognising that, despite its tenacity, this was not really a tenable position for the sunflower to survive for long, I decided to give the plant a better chance of continuing its journey to flower by removing it from the wall and repotting it in some compost in the warmth of my south-facing windowsill.

Unfortunately, the small seedling had rooted too firmly amonst the masonry and the stem snapped clean in two when I gave it a gentle tug. Saddened at the plant's sudden misfortunate at my hands, I determined that I would not gave up on it, and I put the snapped, rootless seedling in a glass of water, where I hoped its fighting spirit would prevail.

I kept a careful eye on the seedling over the next few days and was encouraged that the sunflower stayed fresh in the water and did not wither. And then, over the course of the next ten days or so, I eas delighted to see the seedling slowly set forth a fresh young root system :o)   

New roots forming on the snapped sunflower seedling

Repotting the seedling, I had imagined the plant going from strength to strengh and during the course of summer to see the sunflower reach a good height of five or six feet. However, this was not to be and I was suprised to see it devleop a bud when just a few inches tall!

The young sunflower already in bud

Despite its miniature size, the sunflower bloom turned out to be a lovely thing to see and my daughter, who had fallen in love with the plant, took over its care on her bedroom windowsill.

The miniature sunflower in bloom

The sunflower was not finished yet, however, and had another suprise in store for us. Checking on it a few days after taking the above photograph, I spotted it had developed aa further two buds and today (May 1st) I found all three flowers in full bloom :o)

The rescued sunflower in full bloom

Of course, the life cycle of the sunflower is not over yet and it will be interesting to see how the plant develops its seeds on such tidy heads. I'll update the story of this remarkeable little sunflower on this blog sometime in the near future...