July  Morning Glory (Asagao: in Japanese)

朝顔: Asagao (朝: asa means morning and 顔: kao means face in Japanese ) got their name, because they show their faces in the early morning.  At the beginning, they were brought from China to Japan as medicine, but nowadays people enjoy the beautiful flowers.
They have white, light pink, deep pink, light blue, deep blue and purple flowers and there are many species.  One of their features is that they grow by stretching their vines.
In Kamisu City Children grow their own pots of morning glories when they get into an elementary school.  A lot of people grow morning glories in pots outside or on hedges.
Asagao-ichi, or morning glory’s Festival in Iriya, Taito Ward, Tokyo is very famous.  It will be held on July 6, 7 and 8 this year.   So why don’t you visit there?

August  Sunflower ( Himawari: in Japanese)

Sunflowers are so well-known around the world, there is no one who doesn’t know them.  They were brought from North America.  They grow about 2 meters high and bloom fairly big yellow flowers.
Sunflowers were grown for their seeds as food in the days before Christ.  Now they are produced for cooking oil as well.  Recently, in Ibaraki Prefecture, they have introduced activities to grow sunflowers on vacant fields to produce cooking oil.