Sunflowers using Science!

So, a few years ago, I was walking to school (college), when I passed a house that had huge purple sunflowers. I thought they were beautiful. I thought, "hey, you could do that! You're interested in genetics. You love gardening. And sunflowers are one of your absolute favorite flowers!" So the adventure began. I don't know if I'll ever get what I was hoping for, but it's still fun. Initially, I took a packet of mammoth sunflowers, and a packet of "sunset" sunflowers (purple, red, dark orange) and planted them with each other. I let them naturally cross-pollinate. I then collected the seeds and planted those the next season. I've been slacking, but they're still a really cool passive science experiment. 

I believe I started in 2012, but I can't find the pictures from then.

2013

Such a pretty sight. And the difference in color is striking and gorgeous!

Beautiful colors!

This one had a visitor.

2014

This guy had a double head. Conjoined twin Sunflower.

Size comparison.

Really cool crop of seeds!

2015 was a year of transitions. As we moved to TX, we threw handfuls of my hybrid seeds out the window as often as we thought about it. So, I like to think that between NM and TX, there are clumps of hybrid sunflowers popping up, spreading purple and red genes.

2016

September 1- Sunflowers. Not planted deep enough.

September 1- These poor guys (more of my giant sunflower hybrids I've been working on) were doing GREAT... until they were mowed down by the city. 

2017

June 19- My big sunflowers started blooming. That's a normal-sized two-car garage door to the right. That's how tall they got. The biggest is a deep yellow or light orange with hints of reddish streaks in the middle. The other two are gradually lighter, with the middle one having streaks of red in the center as well.

June 24, 2017

My sunflowers. Their offshoot blossoms are starting to bloom. Their as tall as our garage.

You can see their color and size differences. The bees like them. Yay!

This is my big guy. See how pretty the orangey color is? Seems he has a tenant.

You can really see the color differences here. I love the red streaks.

If you look closely, you can see the faint reddish-purple streaks on the edges of the pedals.

July 4, 2017

July 9, 2017