Sunflower named Ruby Eclipse #3
by J McCombie
Title
Sunflower named Ruby Eclipse #3
Artist
J McCombie
Medium
Photograph - Untouched
Description
This piece has been featured in the FAA Groups: "Exquisite Florals", "Macro Photography Only", and "Macro Marvels".
Helianthus 'Ruby Eclipse' is a beautiful branching plant, producing an abundance of ruby red and creamy, lemon yellow tipped bi-coloured flowers with dark brown centres. It's leaves and tips of the calyx sepals are outlined with black. The flowers colours vary in shades, the lightest ones being the nearest to pink that you can get. The plant itself has wonderfully sturdy main stem and will branch from the top producing a few blooms at a time on the plant. The first flower typically will be the largest being 20 to 25cm (8 to 10in).
Sunflowers prefer full sun throughout the day, but can be planted in part shade. If Ruby Eclipse receives less than eight hours of sunshine a day, the blooms will be a little darker, especially if it is receiving more morning sun and less late afternoon sun. The plants don’t get as bushy in part shade as they do in full sun but they are still good strong plants. The flowers are pollenless and are perfect for cutting and will last about a week as long as you cut the bud just as its opening in the morning and scald the cut stem in boiling water. An excellent sunflower that we would recommend to anyone.
Sunflowers are a hot item, originally considered to be a bit of a fad by florists. The fad never passed, in response to the call by florists and home growers, breeders produced innumerable varieties and developed a number of premium varieties that are fabulous as a cut flower, and most importantly are pollenless. A regular cut-flower sunflower is beautiful when cut, but as the disc flowers in the centre mature, they drop pollen all over the consumer’s table, followed shortly, by the petals of the flower. A pollenless variety has sterile disc flowers, so it can produce neither pollen nor seed. Since it doesn’t produce pollen, it never decides that its natural function (seed production) has been fulfilled, and it lasts for two full weeks in the vase. The leaves will yellow and have to be removed, but the flower remains attractive for much longer.
A native of North America, Helianthus annuus is a member of the Asteraceae family. Sunflowers become very popular as a cultivated plant in the 18th century. The plant was initially used as on ornamental but by 1769 literature mentions sunflower cultivated by oil production. Today the sunflower is grown for crops in the Mediterranean, Eastern Europe, Argentina, India and the USA. Artists throughout history have appreciated the sunflower's unique splendor, and those of the Impressionist era were especially fixated on the flower.
The Latin name for Sunflower, Helianthus annuus, is taken from the Greek helios, meaning sun, and anthos, meaning flower. The Sunflower originated from South America and represented the sun to worshiping Aztec people; it was brought to Europe in the late sixteenth century. The species name annuus was named by Linnaeus, it was the only sunflower known to him that lived for a single season, hence it was called annus which means 'annual', 'yearly' or 'lasting a year'.
Uploaded
November 4th, 2017
Statistics
Viewed 232 Times - Last Visitor from New York, NY on 03/27/2024 at 12:16 PM
Embed
Share
Sales Sheet
Comments (1)
There are no comments for Sunflower named Ruby Eclipse #3. Click here to post the first comment.