I planted sunflower seeds twice this summer and exactly one came up and grew. It’s blooming now in one of my flower beds. Yet even with the failed plantings I have enjoyed the beauty of sunflowers this summer.
There’s a whole patch of sunflowers growing among the asparagus fronds. They reseeded themselves from the ones I planted in one end of the bed last year.
I can see them as I move about the yard and they’ve grown tall enough that I can even see them from my bedroom window.
You wouldn’t believe how much I’ve enjoyed their bright sunny nodding heads this summer. Even with the unusual dry weather they bloomed and did their best to show out under the hot sun.
In my years of gardening I’ve found volunteers always do better than things I plant myself.
volunteer
A noun
Often used attributively: an unsown plant or crop of vegetables or grain that comes up from old seeds either late in the season, after harvest, or before planting in the spring hence adverb volunteer = spontaneously.
1915 Dingus Word-List VA 192 = a plant growing without being purposely sown: “The volunteer oats was good.” 1957 Broaddus Vocab Estill Co Ky 83 volunteer crop = plants that come up the following year from seed dropped, or plants left standing at harvest time; volunteer onion = onion that keeps coming up every year. 1957 Combs Lg Sthn High: Word List 107= a vegetable or plant that has come up in a garden or field without having been planted or sown; that is, from seed or root that has lain there from the previous season. 1963 Miller Pigeon’s Roost (July) 25) The writer has mole beans growing in the garden again this year. But I don’t have to plant them anymore. They just come up volunteer.
B verb of a crop: to grow spontaneously after the first crop has been harvested.
1915 Dingus Word-List VA 192 = to grow as a “volunteer”: “So much wheat volunteered that I let it stand.” 2012 Blind Pig (Jan 11) We’ve got things blooming that should have been killed by a cold snap and/or shouldn’t be up till late spring for heaven sakes, theres’ a second crop of lettuce volunteering in the garden.
—Dictionary of Southern Appalachian English
Last night’s video: Matt’s First Tomato Sandwich of the Year.
Tipper
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I planted a batch of yellow sunflowers, and some mexican sunflowers too. They were just starting to get nice flowers on them, about like yours, and the deer went and tramped them all down and dragged them out toward the woods. At least my mexican sunflowers are still going strong, because I planted cleome beside it. I don’t think the deer like the stink! LOL.
I enjoyed seeing your picture so much, since I lost mine. Thank you for a little sunshine!
Isn’t that the truth. I have put lots of time & effort into growing some of my favorites like sweet peas, moon flowers, poppies & nicotiana with little to no luck. Then one pops up on years when I’ve done nothing. It’s amazing.
I love sunflowers, but never grow them. I think its about time.
We just found you on YouTube a few weeks ago. Mostly we enjoy the cooking videos but I enjoy your videos on your life, past and present. We are southern so much of what you say and do are familiar to us. I like your easygoing way of saying things. I just watched the video on mean comments and I can’t understand why people are so mean. You seem to have a good way of dealing with it. Anyway,I’m very happy for your success and will continue to watch. Btw, I just ordered your cookbook which is really saying something because I usually just go to Pinterest. Continued success and God bless!
Toni-thank you! I’m so glad you enjoy what we do and we really appreciate your support!!
I had my first of the year home grown tomato sandwich about 4 weeks ago. For the ones that like the Cherokee Purple, I grew a tomato this year that is a cross/hybrid between the Cherokee Purple and Carbon Black tomato. It is named Cherokee-Carbon. I could not find plants but bought seed and had a friend with a greenhouse grow some plants for me. I thought it made a real good sandwich. Unlike Dee, Tipper and maybe some other ones, there is only one mayonnaise for a lot of us born and bred southerners and it is DUKES! The heat and dry weather played the devil with my tomatoes, they are pretty much done for this year.
I noticed you used the words “show out” in describing your sunflowers. Is this the same as saying “show off”? My husband’s Missouri born grandmother would say show out instead of show off when someone was being boastful, etc. She’s the only one I’ve heard use it this way. Just curious.
Gina-it is a very common phrase here 🙂 And like many of our phrases it can mean a couple of things. One is really putting forth your best attributes-whether that’s like the sunflower blooms or someone playing really good during a game. And we also use it like your grandmother 🙂
Oh! Sunflowers! They are such lovely plants. Thank you, Everyone, for sharing your sunflower stories.
In reading this blog today I was reminded of something said by Chris, a character in the 2003 movie “Calendar Girls.” This is what she said:
Chris: A while ago I asked John Clarke to give us a talk here at Knapely WI. Annie asked me to read it to you here tonight, and this is what he wrote: “The flowers of Yorkshire are like the women of Yorkshire. Every stage of their growth has its own beauty, but the last phase is always the most glorious. Then very quickly they all go to seed.”
[laughter]
Chris: “Which makes it ironic my favourite flower isn’t even indigenous to the British Isles, let alone Yorkshire. I don’t think there’s anything on this planet that more trumpets life that the sunflower. For me that’s because of the reason behind its name. Not because it looks like the sun but because it follows the sun. During the course of the day, the head tracks the journey of the sun across the sky. A satellite dish for sunshine. Wherever light is, no matter how weak, these flowers will find it. And that’s such an admirable thing. And such a lesson in life”( https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0337909/quotes/?item=qt0182770).
I had 2 volunteer sunflowers this year from a row of so-called “dwarf” sunflowers I planted last year. They are, of course, sorta in the way but I left them anyhow. Last year and this they only got about 12 feet high – some dwarf. They have a large number (20-30/plant) of heads and are probably near 2″ in diameter at the ground. I also planted some store-bought seed and just realized today that all plants but one have the usual yellow head but the one has red petals with yellow tips. As for the big ones, I think they could be interplanted with runner beans for them to climb on. They would for sure be sturdy enough. But not sure whether the two would grow in sync or not. Right now my field peas have climbed up in the 2 and there will be peas out of my reach. Oh well.
My ex-husband planted a few acres of breathtaking sunflowers every year, not because he enjoyed the beauty of nature but for selfish reasons including an annual dove hunt on Labor Day weekend. I planted a variety pack of sunflowers this year and they are beautiful. A few volunteers always get mowed under the bird feeder.
My neighbor always planted those huge sun flowers at the end of his garden and I sure enjoyed looking at them. I tried to plant some but none come up so maybe the seed I had was not any good.
Happy to see Matt finally get that fantastic first tomato sandwich of summer!! Yay, for you! My tommy toes have been ready to pick and continuing since about middle of June. We have had a lot of sunny days since June and hot weather. I’ve had to water but rain is the best and we got a really wonderful all afternoon, evening and night rain this past Monday night. Even though I had watered before my cucumbers did not look great but the evening after that rain, my goodness, how wonderful they looked. I had planted one large Parks Tomato in a huge pot on my patio. Before I always had problems with bottom rot but that one tomato grew big and had no bottom rot. About two weeks ago it was my first tomato sandwich and like Matt I was beyond thrilled to pick it. Like you I use white bread and hellman’s mayo with a little salt and pepper. It was soooo good that I sat there and relished concentrating on each bite chewing and chewing and savoring that wonderful taste. Not bite, sawallow:) Now having had that first perfect tomato, I don’t know what happened but when I looked at the other Parks tomatoes they had bottom rot so now I better get to the store and put something in there to hopefully enable me to get another great large tomato:) Thank goodness for my tommy toes cause I sure enjoy them too.
I have a lot of volunteer early sunflowers around my bird feeder. My very large pup has knocked a few down but that probably means there will be more next year. I love seeing the gold finches nibbling on the blossoms. There’s no need for me to plant them. Yesterday I got the first good slow, soaking rain in over a month. Right now it’s pouring. There are many large farms near me with corn that is not all green so I am glad they are getting rain and hope it’s not too late. My few tomato plants are smiling. Maybe I will have a chance to finally have a home-grown mater sandwich like you, Matt and Corie enjoyed.
Love the picture of your beautiful sunflower! I planted sunflowers over the years and have enjoyed them too. Mine this year have sadly already died out. Enjoy yours for as long as you can. Mine didn’t seem to last long this year.
Never heard volunteer used in that way before. I like it! So many times in life voluntary actions have better results than forced ones.
Volunteer plants are the Lord’s way of letting you know that particular area is great for that plant. The soil, water, temperature, and light are perfectly coordinated.
Seeing that you live on a goat bluff on the shady side of the mountain it would be best to take note of those microclimates and use them to your advantage.
Also your plants are acclimating to your specific area and creating a landrace. Many people who follow permaculture find that is really helpful to jot down what you are noticing about the spot where that particular plant is happy so that can thoughtfully know the microclimates.
I usually gave tons of volunteer cherry tomatoes all over the place. And the best part is that they usually have the largest crop. And sometimes you do not have to ‘tend’ to them too much – like you would if you put the plant in the wrong spot ( not good light or moisture in the soil )
Plus I think volunteers taste better 😀
Experts speak of ‘hybrid vigor.’
I think volunteer plants have a vigor like hybrids, making them healthier plants producing fruit that tastes better.
I’ve tried growing them before and they amounted to much, but this year..this year if different. Our friendly chipmunk planted them all over my garden and yard. I found two coming up in a pile of dirt at the end of our house just a few days ago. All of them look better than any I ever planted. I can’t wait to see the sunflowers all bloomed out.
Please say a prayer for us. My husband is a pastor without a church at the moment. When you know God has called you to preach, there is such a desire to do just that. He is struggling and I see it and it breaks my heart.
Tipper, Thank you for sharing. I was in a devotion once that said we need to be like Sunflowers who turn their heads to the sun. May we truly be SONflowers and follow God’s Son! Blessings to all especially Ira and Woody! Love to Granny!
SONflowers, that’s beautiful. Thank you for sharing this. Can’t go wrong by following the Son.
I’m a city person, born and bred. Visiting your site has opened up a whole new world. Enjoying Appalachia through your eyes on You Tube, and blogs has opened up new insights to someone who considers Chicago, and New York my normal milieu. Your family, Chitter, and Chatter, The Deer Hunter, Ira, Woody, Granny, exemplifies love in all its iterations. Thank you for sharing your gift.
I felt compelled to WAIT before planting as May was wet and cold so nothing went in the ground until Mid May. My sunflowers all seem to be “coming up” like Paul McCartney used to sing. My buckwheat is ready to harvest or very close. If it’ll dry, I will glean it. My tomatoes show promise after I put the mojo power of bone meal (calcium and phosphorus) to stop blossom end rot that got about 5 half pound tomatoes.I can’t have that y’all!!! I’d knock down and stomp every tomato plant I have (and everything I have) before I hand it over to bugs, critters or rot! I mean that cause I’d get the final say in it and that bring some “joy?” So far this year, it has been a literal fight to get a morsel grown of anything! Y’all take care, eat plenty of MATER SAMMICHES and fight for your gardens-every nibble! Lol and God bless Americans!!!
Sadie I have got to tell this concerning mojo power. When my grandson was about 3 years old he marked all over himself with a magic marker. Grandma and his Mother was raising sand with him, I got him and took him to the bathroom and used my GoJo hand cleaner on him and washed the marker off. He told his Grandmother and Mother, Papa got it off with his mojo. Money can’t buy those kind of memories.
I always think of my dad when I see sunflowers. We would plant a few every summer bordering his garden. I always loved those flowers!
Some men plant fields of sunflowers in my area. I do enjoy looking at them. I have wrote about this before, when I was kid growing up, there would be some volunteer citrons that would come up each year near our garden spot. Mother would make citron preserves out of them. I loved those preserves. For some that maybe don’t know, citrons are similar to watermelons but stay hard. I have never heard of anything they are good far. I have been told that deer won’t even eat them.
Good morning, YES< one of life's extras; another sign of God's love for us. I lived in Kansas 4 times either when Dad was stationed at Forbes AFB or when we lived there in transient military housing when Dad was on remote assignments. Of course it is the sunflower state and rightly named as they grow wild as orange lillies do on the side of the road here. But the lillies have not been as prolific this year either. I share my birthday with the next door neighbor and while the lily garden usually is past full-bloom, there are a few late/rebloomers. Yesterday, there were, out of probably 150, four. One was a prolific miniature yellow spider with a mauve center. So I dug some bulbs with a flower attached (there were only 4 chutes) and went and visited. Her garden is fabulous, as she has watered faithfully. I was saddened at the condition of the garden here, but impressed how God keeps it alive. It rained last night. And I'm always "running" numbers; well, as a guy on the bench next to me in a laboratory said, I'm "afflicted" with them; guilty as charged… So there were 3-4's in what I wrote today. They add to 12, then keep adding until I get to one number so 1+2=3. God's number. I ALWAYS look for 3's and 7's. God.
I enjoy sunflowers so much! They follow the sun and their heads just bring me joy. Zinnias are my all time favorite and mine are so beautiful this year! I enjoyed your videos last night of Matt’s first tomato sandwich! Prayers for all of your requests! It looked so good! God bless you and yours!❤❤
My mom grows mammoth sunflowers every year and they really do get massive. I took some seeds from her last year and planted some around. They’re a good 12 feet tall and about to bloom. My orange cosmos are always prolific. I save the seeds but also get volunteers every year. This year I planted pink cosmos too and not a single one came up.
I thought of you yesterday as we cleaned out my husbands grand parents house. They’ve both passed and left a house full of every little thing you can imagine from their lives. We’ve found ration books from ww2 and family photos going back to the 1880’s. We found a photo of a girl in Victorian dress that looked exactly like my daughter! But I found a box full of books and several volumes of the foxfire books were inside along with an old “farmers handbook”. I brought them home and am excited to dig in.
I threw several sunflower seeds that I purchased and some responded and some didn’t. However, I grew 5 til they dried up and when they did, I rubbed my fingers along the dried flower and now I have more seeds than 3 envelopes of seeds. I am thinking about growing a ‘row’ of them next spring and see what happens. If they do as well, I can put the seeds in my birdfeeder…’store bought’ is getting a little ‘pricey’. Love the ‘read’ this morning. Prayers for Granny and God’s Blessings on ‘ you all’.
Glenda, most of the sunflower fields I mentioned were planted with sunflower “bird seed” bought in the 25-50 lb bags. The fields are planted for doves.