Sunflower Sisters From My Garden 1

This print is one in a collection of prints honoring my sunflowers. In Spring 2021, I came to have a deep relationship with the sunflower and began to better understand how they grow and interact with other plants in my garden. I started the sunflowers from seed on my indoor window sill from seeds I had saved the year before. I went crazy with them and put them all over the garden. My small garden ultimately turned into a sunflower forest! It was very grounding for me to care for a flower from a small sprout to a tall adult, to watch it grow double my height. I sometimes would lay in my garden and appreciate the protection and joy that these flowers gave to me. One of my favorite activities was watching the bees pollinate the sunflowers.

Sunflowers have an important role in the ecosystem. They are known as the fourth sister. In many Native cultures and food ways, there is a combination of crops known as the three sisters: corn, squash, and beans. In 2021, I planted all three of them in my yard. So to learn that the sunflowers were the fourth sister really blew my mind! I had no idea that this was the case when I planted them, yet perhaps my intuition knew.