who said they were long blooming???

its probably a function of where you are.. ambient heat, rain, etc ...

and due to all the facts you left out..when were they planted???

and a pic might help...

ken

Thanks, Ken. I'm just outside of Boston, planted these in early June, I believe. I've been having more of a problem with insects this year, maybe insects are eating the petals. Here's photos of the two sunflowers. Note that the second one seems to have some weird genetic anomaly in addition to the missing petals: it's growing a leaf almost right in front of its face.

Thanks, floral_uk. It's after dark and I just checked and saw ... nothing. I looked on both the topside and underside and didn't see any insects. And either the same or different insects are taking chunks out of the sunflower leaves as well.

In this garden with many species of flowers I've been plagued by leaf-eating insects throughout this season. Some of the Zinnia leaves are half-eaten, and others as well.

Can folks recommend something I could read online to help me learn how to find and then identify the offending critter(s)?

By the way, I checked my records and the date I planted these is June 17. They're dwarf sunflowers.

you would find petals below if slugs.. they dont eat that fast .. lol ...

since its all at high noon ... one might think some crazy bird is landing and perching .... checking out if its time to destroy the seed head ...

or squirrel.. or some other vermin ...

ken

I'd like to think it's birds but since many of my flower plants in that garden are having their leaves munched on, I suspect it's an insect.... but I'm not sure. Any thoughts on what I can read to get a better understanding of this? Thanks.

Rick,

I notice that some of the missing petals are at the top of the bloom. From time to time a bird will attempt to land on one of my zinnias and the weight or impact of the bird will bend or break the stem of the bloom. Some of your sunflower damage could be accidental damage from birds landing on your blooms. I am attempting to scare the birds off by mounting pinwheels in my garden. I don't know yet whether that is going to be effective or not.

ZM

zenmans reply is brilliant.. wish i would have thought of it ... lol

ken

Ken's right , it looks like goldfinch damage to me. They land on the top side of the sunflower, pick off a petal or two and then reach over to pick at the seed head. As the seeds ripen you'll start to notice they've pulled individual seeds out of the top of the flowerhead to eat. Fun to watch but probably not what you want to see happen to your flowers.

OK, the plot thickens. I think it IS bird damage -- and something else too (see below). Katob, to confirm your theory, here's this photo of the top of the sunflower. Not only are the petals missing, but clearly the seedhead is being picked at as well. I haven't seen goldfinches in the area in quite a while, but I guess the bright yellow of a sunflower bring them out:

But in addition to this damage, something else is eating the leaves:

And this may just complicate matters even more, but last night I went out and caught this beetle munching on the petals. He's smaller than a Japanese Beetle, an irridescent copper-red throughout, unlike a Japanese Beetle which I believe has the thorax a different color than the rest of the body (usually green?).

Can anyone identify this fellow? Could he be eating the leaves as well? Thanks for any help.