Best climbers in any field
The Tour de France may be late this year, but the sunflowers are still giving it their all, writes
The Tour de France is famous for the blood, the sweat, the tears and the world’s best cyclists; every grimace of agony is captured on camera, every crash and casualty is shown in close-up. This year, several famous faces are missing but some things, thankfully, haven’t changed – including that very French thing, fields of sunflowers.
Occasionally, it’s possible to find such a field in Britain, even in Yorkshire, where we are more likely to grow them as individuals, often vying with the neighbours to see who can cultivate the tallest.
Normally, a healthy, happy, common sunflower may reach a height of perhaps 10ft, but one, in Germany, has been recorded at an impressive 30ft. The tallest in Britain – in Wigan – managed to make it to 26ft.
But you don’t have to be competitive to grace the garden with helianthuses because even one single flower in one single pot should be simple to grow and provide a talking-point without anyone having to bend over backwards to see the bloom.
Most varieties are annual sunflowers which may self-germinate from dropped seeds if you leave the heads on the plants throughout the winter, but it’s easier to sow fresh seed in spring, either directly into the ground where they are meant to grow, or into pots.
Remember – these are sunflowers and they love the sun, so choose the sunniest site.
If it’s to be straight into the garden, rake the soil to a fine tilth and make drills 12mm deep. Leave 10cm between each seed. Water them in. As they grow, thin them out to about 45cm apart, leaving the strongest, tallest plants.
Then it’s basically a case of keeping them watered and watching them grow. In pots, add fertiliser every couple of weeks.
Deadhead flowers when they start to fade, or when they are damaged but before they produce seeds. The large outer petals are beloved of bees, so helianthuses are worth growing just for that.
There are a wide range of sunflower varieties to grow – from giants such as Mongolian Giant and Russian Giant to the likes of Dwarf Yellow Spray, which is more at home in a bed or border.
There is even a dwarf called Teddy
Bear which produces fluffy pom-pom flowers.