Well that didn’t last long! I moved my Sunfinity sunflower to a perennial bed over the weekend where the poor thing will have to fend for itself this summer. No, it wasn’t squirrels or chipmunks that were the problem, it was these cute little guys and gals!
Every evening recently, a gang of American Goldfinches has descended upon the plant to pull the flowers apart. It was actually amusing to see how enthusiastic they were about it, but what I didn’t like is that they were landing on the stems of some of my other nearby young plants, and I was afraid they’d do damage.
After several nights of this I decided to move the plant to a perennial bed and use some of my leftover annuals to fill the bare spot while we still plenty of growing season left.
Unlike typical sunflowers that only bloom for 4-5 weeks each summer, Sunfinity sunflowers are supposed to bloom for 10 weeks or more if they are kept well-watered.
At this rate I’m not sure there will be much left to water, but I still want to keep the plant alive and see if the goldfinches eventually find something else to chew on (probably my zinnias once they start blooming…).
