In the vegetable garden, they provide support for climbing beans, cucumbers, peas and other vining crops. American Giant This gigantic sunflower makes an excellent living trellis for pole beans and winter squash. Planted in groups, they can form a miniature forest or tepee.
Reaching a whopping 16 feet tall and producing a single gargantuan flower, American Giant is one spectacular sunflower. Mammoth Gray Stripe Grown by many farmers for its delicious seeds, this super-tall selection is also a great structural plant.
The seeds are black-and-white striped and have a high oil content. The mature plants top out at 12 feet tall—perfect for making a sunflower maze! Holiday The perfect choice for dense plantings, Holiday forms many thick, sturdy branches on a 5- to 7-foot-tall plant.
The flowers are a beautiful orange-yellow, and when planted in a close row, the branches overlap, forming a living wall or fence, perfect for screening neighbors or creating a border around the vegetable garden. Sunflowers for the Seeds If you enjoy growing sunflowers for their edible seeds, be sure to grow varieties bred for excellent seed production.
Whether you plan to eat the seeds yourself or use them as birdseed, these selections boast massive blooms, filled to the brim with meaty seeds.
Humongous If you want to grow seeds for human consumption or for birdseed, this is the variety for you! The seeds are plump and tasty. Reaching 5 to 7 feet tall, the flowers reach nearly a foot across and produce hundreds of seeds. Mongolian Giant Among the largest seeded sunflowers in existence, Mongolian Giant produces seeds that are over 1 inch long!
Titan With flowers that are a mind-blowing 2 feet across, Titan produces scores of delicious, large seeds. Plants reach 10 to 12 feet tall and bear classic yellow-petaled flowers. The stems are extremely sturdy. Know Before You Grow No matter which sunflowers you decide to grow, sow their seeds outdoors, directly into the garden, after the danger of frost has passed and when the soil temperature reaches about 60 degrees F.
Sunflower seeds germinate in 10 to 14 days at optimum soil temperatures. To germinate, sunflower seeds need soil temperatures of at least 55 degrees F, which is much colder than tender plants like tomatoes. Sunflower seeds can also be started indoors, which is helpful for long-season varieties. To extend the season, start sunflowers indoors about weeks early, and be sure to harden them off by taking them outside during the day in a week or two before planting.
Be very careful in handling the seedling if you start them indoors. Damaging the taproot means that your sunflower may never thrive. For best results, start them directly in the garden. After successful germination, thin sunflower plants to at least a foot apart to give them room to thrive. Sunflowers are relatively forgiving, and they are heat and drought tolerant. Ideally, they want hours of direct sunlight a day, and they love heat.
They send down long taproots, so the soil should be loose at least 2 feet down. We have shallow soils, only about a foot deep in places, so we grow them in raised beds to give them a bit more growing space. Sunflowers are also a bit sensitive to wind. With a tall-growing stalk, high winds can break them and destroy their seed head. The stalk is resilient, but it can only take so much. If you live in a windy area, try growing them against a south-facing wall or fence for protection. As far as pests go, birds, squirrels and deer are the biggest problems.
If you see any, just pick them out by hand. These days, most sunflower varieties have been hybridized to produce showy flowers rather than seeds. This variety is your best bet. Sunforest Mix sunflowers can grow between 10 to 15 feet tall. When planting, leave about 3 feet of space between seeds so that roots have space to grow. The most popular variety of sunflowers used in growing competitions, American Giant sunflowers can grow up to 15 feet tall with faces about 1 foot wide.
Their stems are chunky and sturdy to support the sunflower's heavy head. The height of Russian Mammoth sunflowers ranges from about 9 to 12 feet tall. These sunflowers are popular with pollinators like bees and butterflies and animals like birds and squirrels who like to eat their seeds.
One of the rarest types of sunflowers, Schweinitz's sunflowers were named about Lewis David von Schweintz, a botanist who discovered the species in the early s. They can grow to be about 6 feet tall. Sundance Kid sunflowers were one of the first species of dwarf sunflowers. They grow between 1 to 2 feet tall and have petals that fade from red to yellow.
Known for the orange "halo" effect of their petals, Little Becka sunflowers are a dwarf sunflower variety that grow to about 1 to 2 feet tall. They're perfect for growing in smaller garden planters or boxes.
With bright yellow petals and dark brown centers, Suntastic Yellow sunflowers can grow to about 20 inches tall. They love to grow in packs so you can expect to see 5 to 8 flower faces blooming from each stem. The fluffy petals of the Teddy Bear sunflowers are what gives this variety its charming name. These sunflowers can grow to about 2 feet tall, and their edible petals can be fun to use for salad toppings or cake decorating.
These bright yellow beauties grow to about 12 to 16 inches tall and produce multiple flowers from a single stem.
Pacino sunflowers are perfect for adding to cut flower bouquets and summer flower arrangements. One of the most sought-after colored sunflowers, Moulin Rouge sunflowers grow to about 4 feet tall. They're known for their burgundy red petals that are resistant to fading from the sun. For a multicolored sunflower, try planting Strawberry Blonde sunflowers, which can grow to about 5 feet tall.
The petals fade from a creamy white into a reddish-pink closer to the center. As one of the darkest sunflowers, Chianti sunflowers are known for their deep red wine colored petals. They grow to about 4 to 6 feet tall, produce multiple flowers per stem, and are pollen-free. Growing to about 5 feet tall, Italian White sunflowers are a favorite among bees and butterflies. Their petals are more slender and less crowded than traditional sunflowers and boast a creamy color.
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