{"id":4331,"date":"2010-11-08T22:23:03","date_gmt":"2010-11-09T03:23:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/gardenlog\/?p=4331"},"modified":"2017-07-17T15:35:17","modified_gmt":"2017-07-17T15:35:17","slug":"helianthus-annuus-elves-blend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/plant-highlights\/helianthus-annuus-elves-blend\/","title":{"rendered":"Helianthus annuus &#8216;Elves Blend&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I like to try new ornamental sunflower varieties every year. No matter how the breeders try to &#8220;improve&#8221; sunflowers, they remain an unfussy, straightforward flower. There&#8217;s something very egalitarian about sunflowers. This fall I was attracted to &#8216;Elves Blend&#8217; (from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.botanicalinterests.com\/store\/search_results_detail.php?seedtype=F&#038;seedid=255\">Botanical Interests<\/a>) because it was advertised as a dwarf variety, growing only 16-24 inches tall.<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"http:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/photos\/400\/sunflower_ElvesBlend2.jpg\" alt=\"Elves Blend sunflower\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I planted them on September 13th in one of my future larkspur beds. I planned on them blooming in the fall to provide some interest until I could get the larkspur planted. Then after the sunflowers were felled by freeze, I&#8217;d put the larkspur seedlings in. I completely miscalculated when the leaves would fall. Here it is two months later, the leaves are still on the trees, and the sunflowers are in shade most of the day.<\/p>\n<p>This is probably why they are only 6 to 12 inches tall! They aren&#8217;t happy but they&#8217;re trying their darnedest.They began blooming on Halloween.<\/p>\n<p>If you like sunflowers but feel like you just don&#8217;t have the space for huge towering ones, &#8216;Elves Blend&#8217; is just the ticket.<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"http:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/photos\/400\/sunflower_ElvesBlend3.jpg\" alt=\"Elves Blend sunflower\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><img src=\"http:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/photos\/400\/sunflower_ElvesBlend1.jpg\" alt=\"Elves Blend sunflower\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[229,230,466],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4331"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4331"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5153,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4331\/revisions\/5153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}