Sunday Times

WHICH SUNFLOWER?

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THE sunflower the world loves to grow is high-rise Helianthus annuus, but there are many more, 50 species in fact, all native to the Americas. They have been hybridised to produce a wide variety of colours and growth habits, but there are still basically just two kinds to grow for pure pleasure: single-stemmed and branching.

The single-stemmed varieties are the ones that are really tall and produce really huge flowers. The record stands at over seven and a half metres, which is probably going too far, unless you live in a double-storey house. You want to be able to see the flower after all, and without binoculars. The average single-stemmer, though, will not grow much above two metres and is also good for screening and growing other things up its stem, such as runner beans.

The branching ones can also grow pretty tall but have a softer appearance and are great in the home garden for cutting, because the side flowers are quite large and can be picked, while still leaving you with plenty of flowers on the plant.

There are lots of different colours as well as yellow: glowing russet and copper shades, pale lemon, and dark and light centres. A mixed packet is a good idea because it will be full of lovely surprises.

Check packets carefully for plant height when you buy seed. Breeders have produced a whole lot of dwarf varieties of which it’s quite hard to see the point. But they are pleasant enough in pots and at the base of taller single-stemmed sunflowers.

Kirchhoff’s have a range of heights from dwarf to 2m-tall ‘Sunny’; also look out for the lovely ‘Tall Red’.

Starke Ayres offer the fat, fluffy ‘Teddy Bear’, a wonderful showy old variety immortalis­ed by Van Gogh. And a very nice, if not very tall mix, ‘Music Box’.

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