#tithonia

[awakeningthevioletswithin]

Solar Flares

Watercolor On Birch Panel

2023, 24"x 36"

Orange Mexican Sunflowers, Tithonia diversifolia

Private Collection

[wsjyuyuyuau]

Elena Amamiya/Cure Soleil (Star Twinkle Precure)

Name: Elena Amamiya/Cure Soleil

Series: Star Twinkle Precure

Gender: Female

Status: Alive

Family: The Amamiya Family

Flower Motif: Mexican Sunflower (Tithonia)

Flower Meaning: Laughter

Weapon of Choice: Soleil Shoot + Twinkle Stick

Associated With: Interdimensional Hero Club (Ally)

Stationed At Which Cafe: Cape Canaveral, FL, USA

Hero Form Appearance:  It’s literally her Precure outfit… but with mexican sunflower patterns on the orange parts. No need for any changes!

Full Bloom Gauge Location: None due to being a Precure

Guardian: Fuwa and Prunce (Star Twinkle Precure’s Fairies)

Favorite Food: Jalapeno Poppers

Parallel To: None

Bio: Elena Amamiya, AKA Cure Soleil, is one of the five main Cures in Star☆Twinkle Pretty Cure. She is a third-year student at Mihoshi Middle School, and is in the same class as Madoka.

[cdsphotography]

Tithonia + 1 Bumblebee

[faguscarolinensis]

Tithonia rotundifolia / Mexican Sunflower at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens at Duke University in Durham, NC

[crudlynaturephotos]

[nncastle]

Mexicans. 😊

[solarpunkani]

Easy To Grow Seeds

This isn't like a cohesive list or anything, but here's a brief list of plants that I, a gardener in Florida, have found easy to grow from seed.

Granted, most of these are things that I put concentrated effort into growing from seed (daily watering, selecting a specific spot, starter trays, etc.) but also tend to just. Pop up even outside of my intentions for years afterwards. I mostly do pollinator gardening, but if this list helps inspire your seed mix for guerrilla gardening, I'm glad I could help!

- Zinnias: I've grown zinnias from potted plants before, and I've grown them from seed as well. When I grew them in my garden box, the plants grew back the next year with genuinely no input from me whatsoever--they just popped up! The zinnias tend to be popular with butterflies, and occasionally bees and hummingbirds, and add a nice pop of color to things as well!

- Sunflowers: Sunflowers are an all-star in my yearly garden, my Dad and I grow them every year from seed and they do great! Just give them a sunny spot and some attention and they'll grow great! Sometimes they get so tall the stems break, but by that point they've provided some color, pollen, and nectar for the local bees and butterflies! They come in all sorts of colors, heights, and sizes, and they're all lovely to look at! They even sell big bags of sunflower seeds that have started seeds in pots on my patio when birds drop them! My Dad and I really like growing sunflowers and zinnias together, for pops of colors in all heights and sizes!

- Milkweed: Mostly talking about tropical milkweed here (its the kind I've got the most experience with), but it is mad easy to grow these from seed. I don't even have to cold stratify them, and they do just fine! They flower a lovely orange and red, and they make so many seed pods I can't collect all the seeds even when I'm trying to. And those seeds make new milkweed plants easy as pie, even with no input from me! Butterflies love them, and they're the host plant for Monarchs as well! I'm still trying to grow other kinds from seed, but I've heard of others having way more luck than me!

- Mexican Sunflower/Tithonia: A new plant that I just grew from seed for the first time this year! These are mad pretty, they made so many flowers and attracted soooo many butterflies (we'd get 6 on the plant at the same time, some mornings!) and we've already got seedlings starting to pop up near where the plant was! It's also pretty easy to collect the seeds yourself, so I've got plenty of backups in case these seedlings don't make it for some reason. Could be a lovely addition to a seed bomb!

- Peppers: a 'flowering' plant that's more known for food, its something I've grown from seed a lot! Sometimes with specific care, but last year I just tossed some seeds from a grocery store bellpepper on the ground and covered them a bit and left them alone after winter break, and I still got a few seedlings that grew to full size! If you wanna do some edible guerrilla gardening, could be a nice option.

- Basil: I grew these from seed for the first time this year, and it was mad easy. I feel like I barely did anything other than put them in the garden box and water them! The flowers attracted bees, though if you wanna eat the basil I think you're not supposed to let it flower?

- Watermelon: Most years I had good luck growing these from seed, though I'll admit this year they didn't seem to come up? I think they like a nice thick bed of compost to grow in, probably more than a seed bomb could provide. Not to mention all the space you'd need to manage the vines--those vines are no joke, they were stretching halfway across the backyard any chance they got.

- Borage: I've grown it from seed, and it started easy but then died because I. Forgot to water it. Another gardener I know said they're easy to grow from seed, and just keep popping up even after you remove the main plant! An edible plant, the blue flowers are mad popular with bees as well!

- Mustard greens: not only was it mad easy to grow from seed, they produced big leaves real quick, nice yellow flowers that were popular with bees not long after, and they make tons of seeds right after!

That's about everything I can think of right now! Not sure if all of these are super helpful for guerrilla gardening, but if even a little bit of it helps than I'm glad!

[brandochunderdarkseas]