Yellow With Jealousy

My sunflowers have just started blooming again. But this post comes 2 months earlier than last year's did.

From this morning

I really was on the ball this spring. I planted them on time, instead of waiting till the last minute when the temps were scorching.

I wanted to have tall, majestic sunflowers like I did the very first year I planted them. Even the red ones I planted turned out nice.

Summer 2007

Hmm...the camera must have slipped a little when Chuck was taking this picture...sneaky bastard

And I just like this one Desiree took because we look surprised...surprised the sunflowers are so damn awesome!!

Every year I try a different brand of seeds labeled 'Russian Mammoth', and every year I've found that the seed company has lied to me. (I'm not sunflowerist by the way, I just really like Russian Mammoths compared to all others. Is that so wrong?)

Do these look 'mammoth' to you? Anywhere close to 'mammoth'??



I didn't think so.

It's been hot as a bitch since the beginning of May. 90F+ every single day. With little to no rain. And no shade whatsoever. It hasn't even been fucking cloudy more than a few days this growing season. So I've had to water the shit out of them, and even that hasn't been enough.



So I figure that the drought is the problem with my sunflowers. It's been pretty severe.

We've had some major wildfires burning close by over the last couple of weeks because it's so dry they can't contain it. Ash has been falling like snowflakes. There's a sickly orange glow over everything when the sun can get through the smoke...almost like the light of an orange streetlamp but in the daytime. We've been sick at work because the smoke gets in very easily, and five minutes of being in the receiving room will render you breathless and ill.

My friend took this pic the other morning driving to work. That's not fog, it's smoke.



We really need some rain, badly. Although it will be too late to help my sunflowers. Oh well, they still look much less sad than last year's. Next year I'll also try them in a different spot, lack of crop rotation may also be a problem. I never said I was an agricultural virtuoso.

A friend of mine also grew some sunflowers, and hers ended up at 9 feet tall. My tallest one is barely 6. She's got a bit more shade in her yard. She showed me pictures on the phone, and her sunflowers looked so awesome that I had to stifle the pressing urge to punch her in the face and throw her phone in the garbage.

She offered me some of the seeds from them for next year.

Pity seeds.

But you know what? I'll take 'em. These average, mediocre, less than colossal sunflowers are starting to piss me off.

I only want the best! The best, dammit! I'm tired of yearly disappointment.