Page 8 THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – Friday, September 4, 2020 Saugus gardens in the pandemic Here’s what’s blooming in town this week to make your walks more enjoyable By Laura Eisener I hate to say it, but at this time of year there are already appearing some signs of fall – the patter of acorns dropping on the roof and their crunch under the tires on my driveway, a few yellow leaves on the tulip tree and many red ones on red maples in the swamps. The cardinals are developing their reddest plumage and a few birds are already heading southward. At the same time, we are being treated to some of the most exuberant flowers in the garden to remind us that summer is definitely not over. We all know what sunflowers are, right? Their big heads of flowers surrounded by golden (or sometimes red or orange) rays look like the sun. To many people sunflowers are symbolic of sunshine, late summer and gardens, and their images appear on dishes, household linens, T-shirts, door wreaths and more. Florists sell bouquets of sunflowers by the bucket, and even supermarkets carry them in the floral department. There are actually about 70 different species, some perennial and some annual, in the sunflower genus (Helianthus). All of them are New World natives, with most originating in North and Central America but a few in South America. The most familiar species, common sunflower (Helianthus annuus), comes in quite a variety of shapes and sizes. In addition to tall ones with big flower heads and thick stems, there are some much more delicate varieties, and there are a number that have very short stems. According to the Guinness Book of World ReA.B.C. CIGAR 170 REVERE ST., REVERE (781) 289-4959 Same Location * Same Service for over 48 Years... Thanks to our customers for their support ! SYMBOLS OF SUNSHINE: This line of sunflowers on Prospect Street might not be the tallest, but it is a colorful surprise for people passing by. (Courtesy photo to The Saugus Advocate by Laura Eisener) Chris Dan Steve OPEN AND READY TO SERVE YOU...GIFT CARDS AVAILABLE MASK REQUIRED! * Desktop Humidors * Gift Cards * Travel Humidors * Vapes * Juice * Cigar Accessories * Bongs * Lighters & Ash Trays * Glass Pipes * Rewards Program * Juuls * CBD Infused Products Buy your Cigars by the Box & Save! Plus our “Golfers’ Special” 15 Handmade Cigars - Churchill Size including a Cohiba! Only $43.95 SPECIAL OF THE MONTH Montecristo Sampler 5 Toro size cigars Plus a matching ash tray Regular Price $75 Special Price $49.95 Daily Special Cigars priced with a green label buy 2 cigars get the green label cigar - FREE STORE HOURS 8 AM - 8 PM Mon. - Sat., Sun. 8 AM - 6 PM cords, the tallest sunflower so far was grown by Hans-Peter Schiffer (Germany) in Karst, Germany, in 2014, and measured 30 feet and one inch on August 28 of that year. I am usually sufficiently impressed to see them at 10 feet in height! Sunflowers’ superlative qualities often bring out the competitive spirit in gardeners, and some varieties are known for having the largest flower head diameter, or the largest seeds. What most people consider a single “flower” on a sunflower is actually a composite head of numerous small blossoms in two distinct types: disc flowers which form the center, and ray flowers which line up on the outer edge. If you look closely at the disc flowers, they each have five small petals when they are fully open. Ray flowers actually have five petals, too, but they are fused together to form one large petal on the outside of the flower head. Only the disc flowers develop into seeds. The purpose of the ray flowers is to attract the pollinating insects with their showy petals. Sunflowers belong to a large family, including daisies, coneflowers, black-eyed Susans, chrysanthemums and asters, which have similarly structured flower heads. If you examine the flower head closely, the disc flowers are arranged in a series of spirals following a mathematical arrangement called the fibonacci sequence. During certain times of the flower’s development, the spiral pattern is more easily seen, and of course it is more visible on varieties that have a large quantity of disc flowers compared to ray flowers. While we expect the ray flowers to be yellow, there are some individuals that have orange, reddish, white or even striped petals. Disc flowers are most often brownish, but some, like the variety ‘Sunbeam,’ are green. The popular variety ‘Teddy Bear’ has multiple rows of ray flowers and few if any disc flowers, and is a dwarf variety, reaching only 2-3 feet tall. Sunflower nectar is high in protein, so it is attractive to (and good for) many kinds of bees, including honeybees, bumblebees and other pollinators. Places where sunflowers are grown commercially, either for oil or seeds, depend on bees for pollination. Walking around the Saugus Center area this past week, I was surprised by a line of multicolored small sunflowers on Prospect Street, growing in a straight line along the sidewalk. A neighbor says they just came up one day, so their origins are a bit of a mystery. Did some child or perhaps an adult with a sense of whimsy press some seeds into the soil while on a walk earlier this summer? Or could it have been a chipmunk or squirrel with a strict sense of order? We may never know. Earlier this summer I noticed sunGARDENS | SEE PAGE 9
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