Pest battle with Sunflower — and how I won

I had a serious problem with annual weed competition overwhelming slow-establishing flowers on my Sunflower earlier this year. Caught it late and had to work hard to bring the plant back. The experience was frustrating but educational.

Now that it's healthy again I can fully appreciate wide seasonal succession from spring to autumn, which is remarkable. I've repositioned it in a wildflower meadow replacing lawn areas and improved my attention to scarifying or scratching the soil before sowing for seed contact. peak flowering from early to midsummer was the proof that the plant had fully recovered — genuinely beautiful. Moral of the story: inspect regularly and catch problems early.