A Gift From Nature

Just because I’m weird, I have to share this with you. 🙂 Remember the perennial garden I put in alongside my walkway last fall. I shared this photo of it earlier in the summer. (See that post here: Create A Small Sun-Loving Perennial Garden)

Perennial Garden with Purple Coneflower, Coreopsis Moonbeam and Russian Sage_wm

 

Well, I’m not sure how, but a sunflower just appeared along the edge of it recently. Maybe a bird visiting my backyard feeder brought a sunflower seed around front and dropped it here.

Isn’t it beautiful?! I loved it so much I left it there, a gift from the universe.

Sunflower in Bloom

 

This weekend I noticed its head had drooped down and I wondered.

Sunflower_wm

 

I lifted the large blossom and peeked inside. Ahh, just as suspected! Isn’t nature magical! Look at all those wonderful sunflower seeds forming inside.

Sunflower With Seeds In Garden_wm

 

They are really starting to look like sunflower seeds there along the top left, around the 11:00 position. Nature is just about to plant me a sunflower garden! Isn’t that amazing?!

This totally makes my heart sing so I just had to share this bit of mystery and beauty with you in case it makes your heart sing, too. Happy Sunday, sweet friends!

Sunflower Bloom With Seeds 3_wm

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Comments

  1. Silly girl, you’re not weird at all! It is truly awe inspiring to stop and look at the beauty and complexity of God’s wonderful creation! Sometimes I’m amazed when I study my cats’ faces and the way their tiny hairs all know which way to point and how long to grow. Your sunflower is a beautiful gift and I’m glad you shared it with us! Nature makes my heart sing, too. Happy Sunday, to you, Susan!

  2. Sooooo cool. I love it when the universe deposits a “gift” right in the middle of my path. So grateful for all my blessings. Thank you for sharing the joy.

  3. Thanks for sharing this uplifting story of the amazing things that God does if we would just only open our eyes to the miracles all around us. Cannot wait to see this same perennial garden this time next year…all those happy
    sunflower faces! May your dreams tonight be filled with sunflowers!

  4. Believe me, Renee, she really is weird!!!! lol Susan, the sunflower is beautiful. What a grand surprise. You will soon have the perfect bird feeder for the cardinals. They love sunflower seeds! How fantastic! Thanks for sharing.

  5. Absolutely beautiful! Love when pleasant surprises like this pop up in the garden : ) enjoy!

  6. Oh how nice! I love a surprise like that! The birds will enjoy it too! I’ve had to pull sunflowers out from my flower pots this year. I seemed to have had an active gardener visiting! I think his cousins are Chip and Dale!

  7. I was in awe the first time it happened in my garden, and every year since. This year, I was gifted with a multi-branched sunflower plant – a huge center stalk but many offshoots. I like them all! Mine grew right out from under the feeder where I put only black oil sunflower seeds in winter. I cleaned it up in spring, but I guess there were still some seeds that germinated. Enjoy!

  8. How wonderful. I am looking forward to the photos next spring.

  9. Linda S. in NE says

    Your rogue sunflower truly is a fascinating thing to witness. There is nothing more beautiful, and yet more complex than Mother Nature. Should we take bets to see how long it will take one of your pesky squirrels or raccoons to discover this treat and help themselves?

    • lol I wondered about that! Hope some of those seeds make it to the ground but I don’t mind sharing. 🙂

      • There are few things more beautiful, in my opinion, than sunflowers, especially the fields of them all in bloom. However, be careful with letting yours drop seeds…..most sunflowers seeds contain a toxin that stunts and/or eliminates surrounding plants and can kill grass too, over time. Mother Natures way of eliminating competition? But so beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

  10. Beautiful! Reminds me of the time I noticed what looked like a squash plant growing among my shrubbery. I let it grow, & it grew a tiny white pumpkin! No idea how it came to be there.

  11. Love that beautiful sunflower and the wiley critter that planted it there for a snack later on. I guess he wanted to put a snack bar in your front yard! Thank you for sharing with us Susan.

  12. You are right..nothing quite to compare with Sunflowers~ I must tell you I once in my life did see fields with nothing but sunflowers…acres and acres ‘as far as the eye could see’…my friends and I had been to the Dallas Market to shop for our business in S.E. Texas and were headed home. An incredible sight!

  13. A surprise plant is one of the best kind. For 3 years I had surprises come up at the end of the deck. First it was a blue Siberian iris, then a 4:00, then a lily. Each was like a special gift to me from God. No more new ones, but they have multiplied.

  14. Your photos are fabulous. When my kids were little, we grew a few sunflowers too. One of them got to be about 12 inches in diameter. It was a real treat for the birds until a squirrel found it.

    Thanks for sharing your story.

  15. Susan you want to do something even neater?’ when the seeds are ready take a couple handfuls and just throw them out your car window when driving like on the freeway and they will just sprout wherever they land. bring a little Sunshine to any one driving along.Susie

  16. Well I for one, love that you’re a little weird ( it makes me feel at home when I come by )
    And I also love that the universe sent you such a wonderful gift – we have tons of birds in our garden – and the only type of gift they leave me is something I need a hose to get rid of LOL
    It’s gorgeous !
    Hugs,
    Suzan ( Susan with a Z )

  17. Wow, love this story! I can totally imagine a sunflower suddenly appearing in your garden, make you feel like nature gave you a really, really nice present! Beautiful!

  18. Well the sunflower is “flower of the month” on my blog this month! On a recent trip to Italy I loved seeing the fields of sunflowers and knowing that their drooping heads were protecting the seeds forming inside from the hungry birds! Yours is beautiful and truly a gift!

  19. That close-up shot is just gorgeous. If you grab another when all/most seeds have developed, please share.

  20. Old “mom nature” knows just what we need!! xxx franki

  21. Doreen Krajzel says

    Hi Susan;
    Thats what makes gardening so much fun! You just never know what might
    pop up here or there. Thanks for the pics, it made my day. Love, Doreen

  22. Susan,
    Being from Kansas, I L O V E Sunflowers!!!
    But, I get excited when I find friends from
    other states that enjoy their beauty, too!
    “Mr. Ed” cuts the heads and places them near the bird feeders.
    Beware, though. . .your pesky squirrels will eat them, too!!!
    Thank you for sharing!!!
    Fondly,
    Pat

  23. Rachel laughton says

    I love nature ! One of the first things I ever planted was sunflowers . I planted them along the edge of our vegetable garden. I loved them then and I still love them now.
    Rachel

  24. Oh what a wonderful surprise…that would have made me smile too!!!…Now you have great seeds to plant!!

  25. Sunflowers are wonderful! We need to plant some next year. In China we would buy the heads and the girls ate the seeds. I posted about one of our experiences buying from a bike vendor on our walk to a coffee cafe. Sunflowers grow in gardens and on the edge of concrete. They seem like a miracle flower, surviving anywhere!

    • Linda, I love that! What neat memories. They really area little miracle flowers that can feed us and the birds. 🙂

      • Dear Susan, As a blogger of a much smaller blog and commenter on more than a few, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you actually taking the time to respond on occasion to my comments and others. Thank you. Have a good day.

  26. Love the sunflower. I somehow ended up with a squash plant growing in my front yard. I decided to let it grow, until it started creeping up my front steps. Then I decided it had to go. But it was fun while it lasted. And I got free fall/Halloween decorations with all the bumpy squash that grew.

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