SEEDS FROM PLOT 509

     "Mommy, how does a sunflower grow?"

     "Well, my little Zane, it's this way: In our garden, in the middle of the city, stood two, very tall and very handsome sunflower stalks. One day, as the sun grew hotter, a large green flower bud began to unfurl, spreading out its golden orange petals. More and more unfolded and finally the flower showed its glory to the blazing sun.

     This beauty caught the 'eye' of another sunflower a few garden beds over. It was quite impressed by the contrasting brown and golden tones in the splendor of its petals. A bee happened by the flower and the sunflower whispered 'psst' and asked the bee to take some of its pollen as a gift to this beautiful brown and golden flower.

     The bee was happy to oblige. The flower graciously accepted the gift of pollen from the other flower. It thanked the bee quickly before she flitted off to another garden bed.


     A bit of time passed, the days grew shorter, and the nights got colder. One day the once beautiful brown and golden flower began to fade. But tucked away in the flowers' head were little nuggets of promise. These 'nuggets' were baby seeds, getting ready for an unknown adventure. This adventure started as soon as a dried seed fell out of the withered flower head to the fertile loamy earth below. The earth was moist and full of nutrients. Leaves blew, tumbling onto the sunflower seed.

     Now it was getting really cold in the garden. Leaves and other plant materials gathered on and around the seed. A blanket of snow gently covered the garden bed that gently held the seed. The sunflower seed slept a deep sleep until one day the blanket of snow gave way to the warming sun's rays.

     Each day the sun grew warmer and the garden bed grew warmer, waking the sunflower seed. The baby sunflower inside the seed felt too tight in its shell and decided to stretch its feet, which was really its root. The baby sunflower loosened its shell and stretched its body.

     It had a leaf! The baby sunflower reached with its leaf towards warmth above. Finally its leaf broke through the earth and rotted leaves and found the sun's rays gleaming down upon the earth. 'Oh this feels wonderful' said the sunflower baby, and continued to reach and stretch to the sun. Every day the baby grew, not looking so much like a baby anymore but now more like the handsome parent flowers of the season past.


     A great green bud began to unfurl, giving us yet another show of splendor; beautiful brown and golden petals unfurl. In a nearby garden bed, there grew a deep reddish brown sunflower. 'Hmm, quite a looker...' said the sunflower. A bumblebee buzzed by...."

     By Aspen Marks