Sow Ideas Like Sunflowers

Ideas are like sunflowers — they may arrive unannounced, and not all will reach full height.

Our first crop of sunflowers was a gift from unseen forces-a bird, perhaps, or a squirrel? The seedlings poked their heads up in the two raised beds in our garden-in and amongst the poppies, alongside the cosmos plants we had raised from seeds and planted in the bed.

My husband Steve (the one who does the gardening), contemplated the upstarts.

“I’m going to let these grow and see what they are.”

He had an inkling they were something special-volunteers worth giving a chance. I suspected they were broad-leafed weeds, but agreed.

A few weeks later, he was certain. “They’re sunflowers.”

And then there were more.

Nature is a considerate landscaper. She sowed the seeds in sequence, so that while one flower bloomed, the next was climbing toward the sky. For weeks last summer, we enjoyed a rotating succession of blooms. As one lost its petals and developed seeds for the birds, the next unfurled and turned its face to the sun.