We’ll continue with stories from the tierneycreates Beastie on our trip to Ireland (see post Guest Blog Post: Beasties Return to Ireland!) but I’d like to pepper in some posts that I as drafts before I went to Ireland, planning to schedule them for posting while I was overseas, but forgot about them (distracted by Ireland!).
I love sunflowers, so much that I have a category on my blog on posts about them – Sunflowers!.
Summer is over and we are now deep into Autumn but I wanted to share some of the sunflowers in my garden this season that made me smile. Also I learned how to properly harvest sunflower seeds (thank you YouTube).
Here some of my favorite sunflowers from my garden (to me they are glorious…to you you might wonder: “why is Tierney using up some of her blog’s image limit on these pictures”, ha!):
This year I successfully grew a giant sunflower. Yes ONE giant sunflower, but when it finished blooming and go to the seed maturing phase of its existence, I figured out how to harvest the seeds for next year:
I am pretty excited as I think there are over 100 sunflower seeds in that jar. Just think if every seed became a giant sunflower and then I harvest each of those – I could have a “Sunflower Empire” at my house! (No worries of this happening, I do not have the garden space to achieve this…unless my neighbors let me use their front lawns also….)
MY FANTASY:
Okay I will be happy with 5 instead of just 1 giant sunflower next year.
Speaking of fields of sunflowers, I do have a wonderful memory of actually sitting in a field of sunflowers. I did this in 1998 during my first visit to Italy. Here is a photo I took of a photo in an old scrapbook:
I wonder if my partner John will mind if I pull up the grass in our backyard and turn it into a field of sunflowers…
I love sunflowers so much I have them around my house. Here is my upstairs guest bathroom which is decorated in a sunflower theme:
Recently I brought home a new enamel tea pot and cups from Ireland and I had my first pot of tea with them and used my sunflower tea cozy!
By now you are likely tired of sunflowers so it’s good it is the end of this post (smile).
tierneycreates 
Wow! Gorgeous! I believe John would love a backyard filled with sunflowers. Is there a sunflower quilt in the making?
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I’ve already made a sunflower quilt (years ago) but perhaps another one in the future 🙂
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Your post brought a big smile to my face! And some of your photos would make stunning collage quilts!
Maybe you could send a few seeds to your blog followers and we can ALL grow your giant sunflower field together??
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That is a great idea! We’ll see how they are looking in the spring next year (hoping they do not mildew, hope I dried them enough) before I offer to share – ha! 🙂
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You are seriously into Sunflowers! A reflection of your personality, no doubt. Your new Irish tea pot and cups seem to fit right in with the bunch of ’em!
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I am! Thanks so much and I am so happy with the teapot!
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I had this great plan of filling one of my raised beds with sunflowers. Unfortunately, we had such a cold, wet spring, they got a late start, got REALLLLLY leggy, and only a few bloomed. But that didn’t stop the squirrels from trying to climb up them, making them fall over, and then stealing the few seed heads I had.
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Oh no, I think Spring is the key to getting them started and that has happened to me before where the sunflowers just came out leggy with little blooms. I had some critter steal some of my sunflower heads before I could harvest them!
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Luckily I have a whole baggie full of saved seeds from last year (I beat the squirrels that time). So, maybe next year.
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Soooo beautiful! 🌻
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Thanks so much Jeff for stopping by in between writing your glorious poetry 🙂
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Love the variety of colors in your flowers and that giant one is spectacular. A small field wouldn’t be so bad. You could sit and watch the heads turn to find the sun. Sounds like a perfect day. 🌻
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I love the deep orange ones and that would be very cool to watch them turn to the sun! 🙂
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I never knew there were other colors than yellow! How beautiful they all are Tierney. I love how you decorated your bathroom. 🌻
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Thanks so much – I know the bathroom is a little over the top but I like it 🙂
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I also love sunflowers, so much I have a sunflower tattoo! I love that you have a blog category all about them. I’ve not been successful growing sunflowers in Ohio, but I keep trying!
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Oh that is very cool! If I was to get a tattoo I would consider the same! You do grow other cool things though! 🙂
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Oh my goodness! You great some lovely sunflowers this year! And so cool that you got so many seeds from it 🙂 Being in the field of sunflowers must have felt amazing – surrounded by all that sunny beauty 🙂
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Thanks so much! I wish I could have them outside all year round!
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“grew” some lovely sunflowers
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You’d have no trouble with “stealing critters” if you were here, NZ has no such things as squirrels… And yes I can see an Art Quilt coming up…
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No squirrels?!?!?! Okay you must. move from there immediately 😉
Just teasing, you live in an amazing part of the world and I am sure you have plenty of wildlife that replaces squirrels 🙂
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LOL – we do have sunflower seeds though!
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I grew sunflowers and harvested the seeds for the first time this year. They are such a joyous plant.
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Congrats to you and fingers crossed that both our seeds bloom something next year. There was something magical about “creating” my own seeds for planting (and the farmers in the room all roll their eyes..) 🙂
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I love the pictures of your sunflowers, especially the close up shots!! 💖 And that shower curtain is amazing!!😊
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Thank you and they made me so happy this season! I found the shower curtain on amazon of course where everything strange thing is found 🙂
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What a beaitiful — and attainable — fantasy. Imagine if every front lawn was replaced by a field of sunflowers. The world would be a brighter place.
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Oh that sounds exquisite Mariss!!!
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Your sunflowers are lovely! (not a one of mine came up! too much drought, I think)
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Sorry your did not come up but hopefully next year!
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