Flowers & companions
Sunflowers
Sow Apr to May, staggered; the birds harvest.
- Outside
- Direct sow Apr to May, staggered
- Where
- In ground, along a fence
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Rarely once rooted; deep soak in droughts
- Harvest
- Summer, from staggered sowings.
Care
- Water
- Water the sowings in and keep them going until they root; once the taproot reaches down, one long soak in a dry stretch and a drink while the heads fill is the whole program. A Central Texas summer is weather they stand up to.
- Sow
- Direct sow half to an inch deep in April and May, staggered for a longer run of bloom, giving branching types eighteen to twenty-four inches along a fence. Sow a few spares in pots against the seed-raiders that dig fresh plantings.
- Feed
- About as low-maintenance as a plant comes: a shovel of compost dropped in the sowing hole covers it. Rich feeding only grows soft, floppy stalks that blow over before the finches arrive.
- Ready
- The harvest belongs to the birds: let the heads stand as they brown and dry on the stalk, and the finches strip the seed on their own clock. Cut a head for yourself only if you beat them to it.
- Trouble
- Something digs the fresh seed and fells seedlings at the soil line, which is why the pot-grown spares are cheap insurance. Tall singles lean in storm wind; the fence breaks most of it and a stake settles the rest.
In a bag?
- No
- A full-size sunflower drives a deep taproot and stands head-high; the 15 gallon cap leaves it root-bound and top-heavy, first over in a storm. Only a knee-high dwarf would sit in a container happily, and no Texas source argues for one; give the row open ground along the fence.
A sunflower row is planted for the summer, not the bucket. Sown in staggered April and May rounds, it blooms through the heat and hands the dried heads to the birds.
Growing
The Central Texas annual list files the sunflower as a summer bloomer that reseeds, and the reseeding is a bonus: a spring stand often leaves volunteers for next year's fence. Sow with the warm season, April into May, in staggered rounds so bloom runs from early summer toward the September cooling; the tall singles make one statement, the branching types flower for weeks. Full sun, lean soil, and a deep soak in a hard drought beat any feeding schedule. No Texas source names varieties, so the seed rack choice is height and habit, and the native annual does the rest.