Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: Mexican Sunflower ...., 1 by beckygardener

beckygardener wrote:
Rox - LOL!

In winter a few leaves did drop off, but kill it? Ha,ha,ha,ha .... NO! I think it is Godzilla the Sunflower on steriods! LOL! I don't know what would kill it short of digging it up and burning it! =;-O

I received this plant from a teacher at my school. She handed me this bare stalk that looked a little like a very thick bamboo stick. No leaves, no roots, no nothing! She told me to just stick it in the ground and it would grow. I was like .... yeah right. But I did (only I stuck it in a pot instead) and within a very short time it started growing like crazy!

I do not know how tall it would actually get. I have never let it get over 8' tall. (Because it touches the roof of my porch.) But it is the most determined plant I have in my entire yard. No lie!

I have seeds for it, but would never think of growing it that way because .... if I just stick some of the pruned branches in dirt .... ta da! A nice, big new Sunflower bush will be growing in no time at all! LOL It's the craziest thing I have ever seen grow. And the more ya prune it the bushier it gets. I have only abused it too. No water, no fertilizer, no tender loving care ... nadda! And it just thrives! LOL

Here is what it looks like in bloom. Of which it blooms profusely and attracts the bees and some butterflies like crazy!