Usually on a bank holiday it rains…not this one! It has been such a beautiful hot day that I’ve nearly managed to get all my flowers planted out so I’m hoping for lots of glorious colours in a few months.
This year I’ve planted lots of Sunflowers so hoping they grow tall. I didn’t realise that Sunflowers are what environmental scientists call hyperaccumulators, plants that have the ability to take up high concentrations of toxic materials in their tissues.
There are many articles regarding the benefits of growing Sunflowers in areas that are polluted. After the Hiroshima, Fukushima, and Chernobyl nuclear disasters, fields of sunflowers were planted across the affected landscapes to help absorb toxic metals and radiation from the soil.
There are sunflowers that capture uranium, ferns that thrive on arsenic, alpine herbs that hoard zinc, mustards that lap up lead, clovers that eat oil and poplar trees that destroy dry-cleaning solvents.
“Sunflowers are what environmental scientists call hyperaccumulators– plants that have the ability to take up high concentrations of toxic materials in their tissues. They can absorb zinc, copper, and other common pollutants across of variety of their genome.”
Molly Beauchemin | May 12, 2016
Flowering in my garden…
Flower Power
Who doesn’t like unique cards & gifts to send to their favourite people? I’m super excited to get a new stock of eco-friendly, biodegradable, sustainable wildflower…
Beautiful Flowers
Well this week has gone fast don’t you think? It has been such a warm & sunny week, I hope it stays like this! More and…
Wednesday Flowers
A quick edits of flowers that my friend had bought to cheer the house up, I think you’ll agree that they did. Flowers always make people…
sjbutler.photography 
Beautiful
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Thank you
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I didn’t know that about sunflowers
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I didn’t until I read about it. I knew of the health benefits for having certain house plants that purify the air
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amazing captures 😊
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Thank you
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Lovely ethereal photos from your garden 🙂 I didn’t know about all those plants removing toxins from the air – how amazing!
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Thank you, clever things aren’t they!
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Indeed 🙂 It reminds me a bit of an organic and biodynamic winery we visited in Chile, where they plant different flowers and plants between the rows of vines, chosen to attract insects away from the vines and also to contribute certain nutrients to the soil to balance it out.
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That sounds interesting and indeed very clever.
This how farming etc should be done without the use of pesticides and harmful chemicals that end up into our food chain.
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Beautiful photography.
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Thank you 🙂
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