Sunflowers, part one

Now that it's June, I figured I'd post all these "spring" posts I've had sitting in drafts for awhile. Today, let's talk about sunflowers!

Terri Mom got me a little egg carton sunflower kit for Christmas. I was excited and intimated by it.

In my independent adult life I have managed to keep two plants alive. One was a tiny topiary tree that Mandy gave me for my dorm room in college. It lived a year and then I let to go when I moved home for the summer. The other was a basil plant that I kept on my fire escape in my studio apartment in Brooklyn. I had it the first summer Dan and I were dating. I named it Ba-zeel. He was good to me. 

And that's it. 

I've always wanted to try and grow something but I didn't have space in the apartment in Brooklyn and I was always worried about attracting bugs which is why we never have hanging or indoor plants of any kind.

But now at the house I have the space to maybe keep a plant alive outside!

Back at the end of March I had Kip help me put the sunflower kit together.

I have never planed anything from a seed. My goal, out of two dozen+ seeds we planted, I hoped to get ONE successful sunflower transplanted to a pot on my bedroom balcony. 

ONE

On Easter we had a couple little sprouts:

Three days later we had this:

By the next morning (one week after planting the seeds) we had this:

Look at how it grew out of the seed!

I've never seen anything up close like this. Clearly, I'm no gardener and I didn't pay attention to the planting seeds in a cup activity in Kindergarten. Come to think of it, I don't think anything came out of my cup anyways. It's probably where I get my plant insecurity from.

Anyways, I was SHOCKED that all of this happened in a week and I'd have to admit I was almost more impressed by these little green stems than birthing two children from my own womb. ALMOST. 

A few days later the seeds were quite "leggy." My dad said this happens when the plants aren't getting enough sunlight.

We transplanted the healthiest looking ones to larger pots. Most of the roots were stuck to the egg carton so I tried my best not to rip them in the process. They stayed by a sunny window in my room until the weather was warm enough to take them outside.

One week later, inside my bedroom

Once the weather got warmer and I had cleaned-up the balcony, I moved the pots outside. They got plenty of sunlight and I watered them regularly but they didn't grow. They didn't die but they weren't getting any taller and they seemed generally stunted. 

After Mother's Day, Mandy bought me a basil plant because I wanted one of those as well on my balcony. I decided I needed the big pot so my plan was to take out the most healthy looking sunflowers and divide them between two smaller pots. And there is where I discovered my ultra rookie mistakes. 

When I emptied the big pot, it was FILLED with water. Apparently, I was supposed to drill drain holes in those pots? Further, I had planted the seedlings in top soil not potting soil. The pot was a heavy muddy mess. Ugh, so stupid. So I emptied both pots and replanted one variety of the dwarf seedlings (which looked the healthiest) into a drilled pot with potting soil. These little guys seem to be doing much better one week later. (Sunflowers on the left and basil on the right).

Still no guarantee I will hit my goal of seeing ONE sunflower out of this but time will tell. Stayed tuned!