There is something so purely delightful about the sunflower. The symbol of warmth, happiness and the mirror image of the personified sun. Native sunflowers were originally cultivated by the indigenous people of North America as a food source, but they also held a strong spiritual value. Today modern sunflowers have been bred for not only seed, but show-stopping looks. A bouquet of sunflowers represents loyalty and longevity, they are a cheery uplifting flower, the muse for many countless artists of yester-year like; Monet, Van Gogh, Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo. Sunflowers continue to inspire florists, hobby artists, and notable modern artists, such as Ai Weiwei.
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| "Moulin Rouge" "Coconut Ice" and "Indian Blanket" |
None the less inspired are gardeners, farmers, urban farmers and myself the suburban farmer. Sunflowers are easy to grow no matter the cultivar or size. Giant record break heights require some special care, but cut flower varieties and large seeded heads just need plenty of sun, wind protection and light watering, in my experience sunflowers can be rather drought tolerant.
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| Dark sunflower seedlings sprouting in a row. I like to start in small pots and plant in groupings to protect the young plants from strong winds and heavy rain, it also gives a fuller look to plantings. |
In some areas pests can be an issue with small seedlings or developing seed heads, this can be avoided by using scarecrows, netting and other barriers before an attack occurs. Gardeners with consistent pest problems may want to consider more native varieties, like perennial sunflower, not as nice for bouquets, but stunning in large tall clumps in the garden, they also attract goldfinches in the winter months.
Here on my suburban micro-farm I've experimented with a dozen sunflower cultivars. Mostly packets from local garden sections of hardware stores, I've grown some tall and seeded varieties and they were a blast. The garden at F.A Hamilton grew an impressive sunflower forest in three raised beds. They were all in full bloom as school started up.
Last season I grew "Incredible" and "Moulin Rouge", like most of the plants I grow, I wanted to expand and grow more exotic colouration and have an impressive collection for cutting and decorating. Sunflowers are very showy and a great annual addition to any property as they invite positive pollinators. Ideally I would love a forest of 15 varieties (or more) of sunflowers to take up my boulevard and fill in trouble areas. My narrow minded neighbors who loath my "lifestyle" seem to dislike my flowers, it's 2013 if I want to grow 16ft sunflowers against my ugly city fence and block out my view of your yard, I will.
I'm very excited for "Sunspots" a variegated sunflower, a great add to my 'varigated' collection of edibles, which focuses more on foliage. I think it's going to be a great mix-in with the more exuberant flower-types. I might even grow them as filler in my limited perennial spaces.
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| Gardening Gone Wild has some great photos... and seem to be the only other website-growers of these plants. |
Check out these Wow-Factor Sunflowers
Keep in mind I'm looking at color and cut-flower quality,
not height and seed bearing ability.
If you don't care about the name-sake or specific varieties, buy some mixed packs of seeds, many in-store racks should have a few decent variety packs of sunflowers and there are also some available online. Park Seeds has a great variety of mix packs, as well as Burpee and many others. I particularly like the Seeds of Change's "Tiger Eye Mix". Spring cannot come any sooner.
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