The challenge for this week was to plant sunflower seeds.  As we are just into Winter in New Zealand, this isn't a good time of year for that, we may re-visit it in the Spring.  We have successfully grown sunflowers in the past, so I thought I'd share some photos of those.  These were grown about 3 years ago during a very hot summer (up to 40 degrees celsius).

We did sprout the seed indoors first then planted them out.  Here they are protected from the neighbour's chickens (who used to walk through the fence) and starting to open.  They are from L-R, Bethany's, Emily's and Ainsley's.  I think they must have all been different varieties!

Here is my watercolour pencil drawing of Beth's sunflower opening up.

Emily's was the last to flower, but grew the tallest.  Ainsley's must have been a dwarf variety and Bethany's developed several blooms.

Bethany standing next to her first bloom, squinting in the sun!

Bethany's flowers and Emily's tall one.

Emily's was a lighter colour than the others and needed tying back to prevent breakage.

One of Beth's flowers being appreciated by a bumblebee :-)

I drew this one in pencil last year, then I coloured using pastels & watercolours, but the pencil is still my favourite.

The header on my blog is also one of the sunflowers grown that year. 

This picture below shows how hot it was that summer, the grass died off completely, but the girls kept cool in the paddling pool!

We will definitely see if we can grow sunflowers this Spring!