Mexican Sunflowers and a Free Downloadable Botanical Illustration print

This summer we grew Mexican Sunflowers for the first time. I love their beautiful vibrant colors that are unlike any other flowers I’ve seen!

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The colors are especially beautiful when light passes through the petals.

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They have soft velvety stems that always look like they’re rimmed in light.

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I was also excited to learn that the nectar of the Mexican sunflower is a favorite food of the Monarch butterfly.

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We try to make our garden a haven for Monarchs by growing lots of milkweed for them to lay their eggs upon and butterfly bushes to provide nectar. The Mexican sunflowers are a great additional food source for the butterflies and tons of other pollinators.

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The seed packet said they would grow to be around five feet tall but ours are over ten feet!

I read that Mexican sunflowers reseed easily so I’m hoping to have lots next summer. Maybe you’ll be inspired to grow them too if you have some extra space to create a nurturing environment for Monarch butterflies and other pollinators. If you already grow them, leave me a comment and let me know about your experience!

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I tried to capture the gorgeous colors in watercolor in my sketchbook and decided to make the painting into a pdf that you can download and print. Print it on letter size card stock to use it as a greeting card or you can print it on good quality paper to display it in a frame. The size is 5 x 7” when the excess is trimmed away and folded.

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Download your free print with my thanks for subscribing to my newsletter by entering your email address in the box below!

Birdhouse and Rose Mallow Gouache Painting Demo

Here's a time-lapse video of a gouache painting of a weathered old birdhouse in my garden with rose mallow around it. 

Here's the photo from my garden that I used for reference (below). As you can see, I moved some of the groups of flowers closer to the birdhouse.

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Hope you enjoy this video of my painting process and please subscribe to my Youtube channel if you'd like to see more video tutorials!