I come to praise my sunflowers, not to pull them up and compost them. When they were blooming, the sunflowers offered pollen to the bees. When they were dying, seeds to the goldfinches. The plants have finished dying and dried up, but they’re not done.
Now that’s what I call a dead sunflower. There’s even daisies pushing up at its feet. The big hulking sunflower is a looming hulk of remnants. All the seedheads from the various sunflowers are gone–bitten off, no doubt, by rogue squirrels.
Plus, it turns out that sunflower stems are popular nesting sites for those tiny shiny dark green carpenter bees that mystified me so much back in June. Bees, goldfinches, squirrels, and bees–all hail to the sunflower!
Writing Every Day 
I would like to use your small carpenter bee (on the lavender flower) photo in an educational poster describing native bees. This will be part of a display educating about native pollinators – for the Elkhart IN county fair Green Day July 25.
Oh, how cool! I would be pleased to grant you permission. I will send you an email with details. Thanks!
Hello! Do you use Twitter? I’d like to follow you if that would be ok.
I’m absolutely enjoying your blog and look forward to new updates.