Flowers & companions
Sunflowers
For the birds and the view.
- Outside
- Direct mid May, after frost
- Where
- In ground, along a fence
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Rarely once rooted; a deep soak in droughts
Care
- Water
- Water the seedlings in and keep them going until they root; once the taproot reaches down, one long soak during a dry spell does it, plus a drink while the heads fill. Otherwise it finds its own.
- Sow
- Half to one inch deep, dropped in once frost is behind you and the ground has warmed, mid May. Along a fence, give a branching type eighteen to twenty-four inches between plants; sow a few spares in pots against chipmunks and cutworms.
- Feed
- About as low-maintenance as a plant comes. A shovel of compost dropped in the sowing hole covers it; there is no feeding schedule to keep, and rich feeding only grows soft, floppy stalks that blow over in wind.
- Ready
- You are not the harvester here, the goldfinches are. Let the heads stand as they brown and dry on the stalk into fall, and the birds strip the seed on their own clock. Cut one for the seed only if you beat them to it.
- Trouble
- Dug-up seed: chipmunks and squirrels raid a fresh sowing before it sprouts, and cutworms fell young seedlings at the soil line, which is why a few pot-grown spares earn their keep. Tall giants in wind: the fence breaks the worst of it, but stake a leaner that wobbles.
In a bag?
- No
- A full-size sunflower drives a deep taproot and stands head-high, so a 15 gal bag leaves it root-bound and top-heavy, first over in a storm. Give it the open ground along the fence; only a knee-high dwarf type would sit happily in a bag.
A sunflower row along the fence is grown for the view in July and for the goldfinches stripping seed heads by September. It is the one crop planted with no intention of harvesting it.
Growing
Direct sow an inch deep once frost passes in mid May, in full sun; the first two weeks are the risky ones, when chipmunks dig the seed and cutworms level seedlings, so a few backups started in pots are cheap insurance. Branching types flower from July into September, while the single-stem giants make one statement and then stand at attention until the finches arrive. Leave the heads standing; the birds run the harvest. One deep soaking in a dry stretch beats a week of sprinkling; the taproot takes it from there.
Varieties
Lemon Queen is the branching standard the pollinators mob; Mammoth Grey Stripe grows the porch-tall single head; Autumn Beauty covers the bronze end of the range.