In late winter/early spring I came across a bag of bio sunflower seeds for sowing and thought it might be interesting to try.

Bad idea. They are not suited for pots on balconies. They consume an inordinate amount of water – on sunny days three times a day – and definitely seem to need more soil under their strong roots. Most of them did not survive the unusually windy conditions on my sixth-floor balcony this year – it seems that about every four or five summers it is more windy, and the wind tends to come from an easterly direction directly on to the balcony rather than a more north-south direction which is not felt on this side of the building.

Five of them survived, and grew much taller than I had expected – I think the tallest one may be over 2 m tall.

In any case, they are finally blooming, and finally attracting some insects (and we finally have a blue sky again).

According to NABU, the swifts, of which there have been many around my building this year, headed south yesterday, so perhaps I will finally see more insects making their way all the way up here.