Paint your garden happy with sunflowers
Bold and cheerful, sunflowers represent optimism, positivity and happiness.
They are so popular, even nongardeners know them by name and passersby will stop by a field of sunflowers to capture the sight with their cellphones or cameras.
Did you know a single sunflower head is actually made up of thousands of tiny flowers? Another interesting fact, sunflowers track the sun — the heads face toward the sun and follow it as it moves across the sky.
Sunflowers are easy to grow and make great additions to habitat gardens, providing a source of pollen, nectar and seeds.
Sunflowers originated in the Americas and domestic seeds dating back to 2100 BC have been found in Mexico. Native Americans grew sunflowers as a crop, and explorers eventually brought the flowers to Europe in the 1500s. Over the next few centuries, sunflowers became increasingly popular on the European and Asian continent, with Russian farmers growing 809,000 hectares in the early 19th century (most of which was used to manufacture sunflower oil).
Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh famously painted a world-renowned still-life series of sunflowers. His sunflower paintings are so famous, the Van Gogh museum has teamed up with the breeder of Sunrich sunflowers to create the “Sunrich-van Gogh’s Favourite” label of sunflowers.
Sunflowers (Helianthus) can be annual or perennial — we’ll take a closer look at annual sunflowers that can grown from seed, courtesy of the National Garden Bureau (www.ngb.org). A quick search online found many of the named varieties in this article on the Stokes Seed website (www.stokeseed.com ).
Single-stem versus branching sunflowers
Single-stem sunflower varieties are best for high-density plantings and produce consistently beautiful flowers on tall stems. Succession planting will be needed for continuous blooms throughout the season.
Branching varieties produce flowers on multiple shorter stems throughout the season, which makes them ideal for sunflowers all season long.
Single stem: Procut Series, Sunrich Series and Vincent Series
Branching: Soraya — All American Selections (AAS) winner.
Pollen versus pollen-free sunflowers
Many modern sunflower varieties are bred to be pollen-free, to help foster extended vase life and a nice, clean appearance. These also keep your table clean from pollen.
Luckily, there are many varieties of both pollen and pollen-free.
Pollen-free: Procut Series, Sunrich Series, and Vincent Series
Pollen: Soraya (AAS winner), Ring of Fire (AAS winner)
Height/size of sunflowers
Another way to distinguish sunflowers is by their height and size. Smaller, ornamental sunflower varieties, such as the Sunrich or Procut series are less than a metre tall, while Kong Sunflowers can grow to be 3.5 metres tall. Depending on their height, the size of the flower will also change with larger flowers on the taller varieties.
Tall: American Giant, Kong, Mammoth
Dwarf: Smiley, Sunspot (suitable for small pots)
Sunflowers for edible seeds
Some varieties have been bred to produce large, edible seeds that are great for snacking. The seeds are ready to harvest once the petals have withered and the seeds can be seen.
Edible seed types: Feed the Birds, Mongolian Giant, Skyscraper, Super Snack Mix, Titan
How to grow and care for sunflowers
Sunflower seeds can be direct sown after the risk of frost has passed or started indoors. Seeds should be sown about 1 cm deep (check package for exact depth) and kept moist. Taller, larger sunflower varieties have a large taproot to keep them rooted and do not do well when they are transplanted; direct sowing of those varieties is recommended. Choose a site, or a container, in full sun, with average fertility and good drainage.
Recommendations for the best vase life
If you’re growing sunflowers for cuts, here are some recommendations to extend the vase life of your flower.
Cut when the petals or ray flowers just begin to open, before they have opened off the disc completely. It is recommended to cut in the early morning before the heat of the day.
Remove the leaves below the water line and place the stems in fresh water or properly measured fresh flower food solution.
Check water regularly; sunflowers are heavy drinkers and can empty a bucket or vase overnight.
Change water daily; sunflowers have what some call a dirty stem, as the water quickly turns cloudy with potential for bacterial issues.
It may be too early to plant sunflowers, but it’s not too early to start dreaming about a summer garden filled with sunflowers — I’ve started a wish list…
Theresa Forte is an award winning garden columnist, photographer and speaker. You can reach her by calling 905-3517540 or by email fortegardens@gmail.com.