An Experience

[Admin]

Ever had the experience of growing a sunflower?

You plant the seed and wait anxiously for it grow, as though it were to suddenly burst from the soil a full grown plant.

Days go by, and you become a little more realistic.

Then a week goes by and you're disheartened. Maybe it's a dud? you wonder.

One day you walk by and you see this tiny green shoot and you're jumping for joy. Yay! You grew this plant, or at least, coaxed it out of its seed.

Week by week, the plant grows and grows and grows. The first leaves, then bigger leaves, and you start wondering if it's a beanstalk instead of a sunflower. If you stare at the plant long enough, you swear you saw it move on its own.

A couple more weeks and a flower (or combination flower in this case) emerges. Time for the camera. You take so many pictures that the role of film is gone and you're contemplating buying another role. But you decide that surely one of the pictures is a keeper.

That is the experience an annual can bring. They grow fast, tend to be fairly easy to grow, and at the finish line something beautiful happens. If you're lucky or planned it right, there will be more seeds to start this all over again.