Head Turners

Hailing from the Americas, cheery sunflowers are now a food industry staple as well as a garden standard

The sunflower family, Helianthus, may inspire a love or loathe reaction in gardeners, but it can always be relied upon to bring bold cheer in late summer and autumn. Breeding programmes have brought us varieties in a range of colours, from deep chocolate to the palest lemonyellow. Some are multi-stemmed and perfect for vase arrangements, while others reach heights of 3m or more, towering over neighbouring garden plants.

Early records in the RBG Kew herbarium point to the origins of a plant that is now both a widely grown ornamental product and an important food crop. Kew holds a specimen of Helianthus annuus that was collected by Ferdinand Lindheimer in 1894 in Texas. Another garden classic, gaura, also takes its name from Lindheimer: Oenothera lindheimeri. Both blooms are found across the southern and western regions of North America, the area from which almost all Helianthus species originate.

Archaeological dating points to the common sunflower, H. annuus, being domesticated in Mexico as early as 2600 BC. It was grown as far south as El Salvador and is likely to have been cultivated by the Aztecs. Sunflowers are heliotropic, meaning they tilt during the day to face the sun, which explains their links to ancient solar religions. ‘Dä nukhä’, the word for sunflower in the indigenous Mexican language of Otomi, translates as ‘big flower that looks at the sun god’. It’s believed that for religious reasons the plant may have been suppressed by the Spanish when they arrived in the 16th century, bringing Catholicism with them. This suppression didn’t, however, stop them from introducing it to Europe in 1568, leading to sunflower oil production across Europe. Other species, some annual and others perennial, were introduced in later centuries.

Over time Helianthus has diverged, with some species bred for crop production and others developed for the ornamental market. Many hybrids stem from the annual Helianthus annuus, but good perennials include H. giganteus, willow-leaved

H. salicifolius and popular ‘Lemon Queen’. ■

HOW TO GROW Sunflowers need sun to thrive and fare best in rich, well-drained soil. For an early start in spring, sow annuals under cover and plant out once frosts have passed. Tall annuals may need staking, while perennials can benefit from a late-May Chelsea chop.