Sunflower
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.
Sunflower stem
Squirrel indulging its sunflower seed addiction
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.
Ceratina dwarf carpenter bee
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!
A Native Bee Rancher 