The Whims of Flowers

Behold, the sunflowers I did not plant! Note they are accompanied by other wild flowers I also did not plant. See them all thriving alongside the onions I did plant.

Our yard has gone through some big changes this year. We put in new garden beds, took out old ones, and bought a much-needed shed. Another change this year has been the spontaneous sprouting (and growing! and blooming!) of sunflowers.

It is baffling and pleasing. Baffling, because I spent years trying to coax sunflowers to grow in my yard. The first year I planted sunflowers, it worked! Just drop in seeds, water, and a few weeks later: flowers! It was the easiest thing ever. I was going to have beautiful, cheery sunflowers every year!

But every year after that was a bust. They fried in the sun. They mushed in the rain. Slugs chewed the tender sprouts. Squirrels stole the planted seeds. I think neighbor cats got involved with the digging and trampling?

One year I spent careful months nursing the baby plants indoors before carefully placing them out in rich, perfectly tilled soil and ended up with–yep–zero sunflowers growing anywhere I’d planted them, but three(!) popping up randomly two months later in flower beds where I would never have put them. (Thanks, squirrels).

Now there’s this year. We demolished our garden beds. We hauled in trailer loads of soil, bark, gravel, greenery. The yard needed a change. Our neighbors have cut down old trees at an alarming rate, changing our shared spaces in ways that make me sad.

I did not plant sunflowers this year because everything was new and different and uncertain. A little broken. A little unfinished. A lot changed.

Maybe because of that, or maybe despite all that…the sunflowers planted themselves…

…and bloomed.