One of the new plants I am trialing may be a new favorite, the Brown Eyed Girl Helianthus. I have had this plant for a little over a week and have already cut enough flowers for 3 vases. Officially called the SunBelievable Brown Eyed Girl Helianthus, the marketing spiel states it will produce a thousand flowers over the summer, it is a warm season annual everywhere. It will be interesting how long it will last in South Florida. August triumphs over many things in the garden. Though I can believe it will produce a thousand flowers.
The weather is wobbling between spring and summer already, but fortunately the humidity is still lurking in the Atlantic Ocean. I have finally figured out what to do with all the new plants and will hopefully get them settled in before the inevitable summer heat.
A closer view:
Brown Eyed Girl is stealing the show. The three new Salvias are the back up singers. I am hoping they will all be garden stars. The Salvias are: in white, ‘White Flame’; in red, ‘Roman Red’; in blue, Black in Bloom. The foliage is ‘Lagoon’ Rosemary and Varigated Flax Lily (Dianella tasmanica ‘Varigata’).
That is all from South Florida this Monday. Thanks to Cathy at http://www.ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com, to see more vases follow the link.
Happy Gardening!!
The Shrub Queen 
I really like the Helianthus. The flowers look big, hopefully, they will perform well.
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I do, too. I usually have sunflowers in winter, so I am not sure how long it will last.
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Yes, Brown Eyed Girl really does draw your eyes in 👍 Are you going to count the blooms…? 😉
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I think not. I would guess I cut 25 or 30 flowers in a week.
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That’s still amazing!
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Wow, a great sunny bouquet! I’m going to look for these varieties locally come spring.
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Thanks, Eliza. I will be interested to see if you can find the Salvias.
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I’ve yet to buy the Sunbelievable sunflowers but you’ve just sealed the deal, although I doubt they’ll be available here for some time yet. We’re still ridiculously cold.
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That is so strange, the cold. I would like to hear how you like the sunflowers.
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Oh that helianthus is rather lovely Amelia and at a thousand flowers over one summer it must be worth investing in. I wonder if they’re available over this side of the pond and will have to check. I will now be singing a certain song for the rest of the evening 😂
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Thank you, Anna. I think Cathy at wordsandherbs had one last year.
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Sunflowers are SO rad. We will be growing some this year, although it is still too cool for them. Some mysteriously appeared in our landscapes last summer (after those that I put seed out for failed), and got quite a bit of attention. We were asked to add some this year.
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Thank you Tony.. some bird seed must have escaped there?
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That is exactly how it was explained to me. Incidentally, sorghum also appeared mysteriously in the landscapes. I can not imagine how such seed would disperse like that without getting consumed, but there is no other source for sorghum seed that I can think of.
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How wonderful to see sunflowers! Are you going to keep a tab on how many flowers it actually produces? 😉 The variegated foliage and salvias are a great backdrop. Hope the plant does well for you.
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Thank you Cathy.. counting sunflowers might be a bit much! Did you have brown eyed girl last summer?
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No, I only had a few straggly mixed sunflowers grown from seed last year – they didn’t like the drought and heat.
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