I’m really pleased with how our sunflowers have turned out this year. They’ve grown about 2m tall and each plant has multiple flowers on it. This picture shows one of the three plants that we’ve got dotted around our garden.

Sunflowers with blue sky in the background

I’ve observed a wide variety of bees feeding on them, including some remarkably large bumble bees. They seem to especially like feeding on sunny mornings, when the flowers are bathed in light.

I think perhaps the most incredible thing about sunflowers is their rate of growth. They can go from seed to about 2m tall in around 6 months, and then in another 3 months they’ll be dying and setting seed ready for next year.

The life of a sunflower is ephemeral, but it gets an impressive amount done in it’s short life.