Sunflower Diaries: The Mojo Experience

On Tuesday, February 25th, 2014, I was given a Styrofoam cup filled with fertile soil and a sunflower seed. Having no clue how to care for it, I looked up care instructions on line. Personally I did not think this sunflower would survive with the fickle weather, especially in the harsh cold temperatures. However, when I researched, I noticed that sunflowers can indeed survive in cold temperatures, accordingly.

The sunflower must be inserted into the soil as far as the first third of your index finger so it may have depth for the roots and only enough soil to surround it. It must not be fed water too much during this time, or else the roots will begin to mildew and rot. I noticed that on that the Thursday of the week I received it, the soil was pretty dry. So, I watered it; I put about seven or eight drops out of the sink faucet. It became apparent that the soil gets dry every other day, so that is how frequent I decided water it. I kept it in the window seal with the blinds turned upward, closed, and this was a perfect amount of sun. I noticed that it began to grow quickly by that Sunday. Below is Sunday, March 2nd's photo.

From then on, this sunflower started growing like an ivy! I was so excited.
After a couple days it began to twist and hung over the cup because it was getting so big. I noticed that it would turn wherever the sun was located in the sky. This compelled me to name it Mojo because it has its own mojo with the way it moves (see how I did that?). Here are more pictures that clearly illustrate his moves.

When packing my car for spring break, the sunflower's stem was hit in two areas and it looked pretty bad. Luckily, with some advice from my grandmother, I was told to find a stick to stand Mojo up and moved to a bigger pot. here is a picture after I inserted a stick for better stability.

Unfortunately, when transporting it to another flower pot, too much water was added, and it slowly died. There may have been other stress put upon it as it was transported and getting used to the new soil, which caused it to die as well. I am not showing a picture of dead Mojo.

 RIP Mojo, Feb 25, 2014-Mar 23, 2014.