Obsessed to Gardening (Part II)
Saturday, August 18th, 2007
The second part of the theme of Obsession to Gardening mainly focused on Sunflower (Helianthus Annuus). I was never a big fan of sunflower. However, this year, due to my as I said, my unbelievably curiosity and temptation to planting, I just grabbed the seeds in simply paper packs widely sold starting March especially for the summer seasonal plants. The pictures advertised on the pack itself, could be so powerful to catch ones crazy temptation like me hahahha! Why not this time try sunflower (whispers of urges). Could look yellowish in my small garden summer this year.
Images set 1: Sunflower seeds still in packs. 
Simply reading from the packs, it is recommended to plant sunflower in April and May then later blooming beginning July until October. There were 2 kinds of sunflower that I planted : "Sonnenblumen" and "Zwerg Sonnenblumen" which the former could grow up to 3 meters whilst the latter could only grow up to 80 cm. My favorite is the "Sonnenblumen". Could not wait the 3 meters Sonnenblumen actually!
Images set 2: The early growth of both sunflowers, starting from early germination process April, moved to ground in May and June 2007.
Every weekends, I spent at least more than 30 minutes to do some watering not forgetting fertilizing them. Being in position of mesmerized in excitement seeing the buds revealed and growing bigger was an OBSESSION! However, my obsession did not reach its peak since I did not do much studies or readings on how to grow them even since the starting of germination, I just played around with my "tangan sejuk" thing! That could also be an obsession, that counts too! Nevertheless, that could not be intelligent enough if I want to document my results (silly me!). For those interested to know more about sunflower, feel free to refer to these websites for further infos: (fews I recommend)
1.http://jstait.addr.com/sunflowers/howto.htm
2.http://www.geocities.com/sunflower_info/
3.http://www.ehow.com/how_6752_grow-common-sunflower.html
Images set 3: Blooming and harvesting
Lastly, the heads of "Sonnenblumen", one could dry them and keep the seeds for the next germination, unfortunately, in 4 seasonal country, then I need to wait till next year. In Malaysia, maybe one can do that all year round! Haven’t tried it before but will of course. Top of the list right now for planting flowering plants in Malaysia goes to sunflower (Garden of Sunflower) besides Rose (hybrid and wild) and Hockflowers Gardens.
See image below:
Image set 4: Pictures taken from Sohana’s friendster photo galery (En. Imran Zainuddin’s (FKK) wife currently in Japan following Imran of course doing his phd). Japanese sunflowers!
Subhanallah!
Adios!
p/s: anyone has pictures of Malaysian grown sunflowers, care to share them with me (or any hints or tips)
