On Sunflowers

Everybody loves sunflowers, right? They’re memorable flowers, radiating cheerful exuberance, feeding honeybees and songbirds, and brightening up any garden or bouquet. Sunflowers were the gateway flower that started me down this path. In this post I’ll share some sunflower trivia, tips for growing them, a few varieties I like, and a couple of throwback pics of my first sunflowers way back in 2017.

• Sunflowers are native to North America and have probably been cultivated for thousands of years. When Lewis and Clark traveled across the continent in the early 1800s, one of their journal entries mentions “a very palatable dish” shared with them by Native Americans, made with sunflower seed meal and animal fat.

• In the 1800s, Russian farmers grew more than 2 million acres of sunflowers for seeds and oil, and developed higher yielding varieties that eventually made their way back to the US and Canada. Maybe you’ve driven through the Dakotas and seen a huge field of sunflowers rippling in the wind.

• The Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh is known, among other things, for his paintings of sunflowers.

Growing Tips

Sunflowers are easy to grow from seed, as long as you can keep the birds from eating them! If I plant the seeds directly in the ground and walk away, the birds always manage to uncover and gobble up 90% of them before they ever get the chance to sprout. So I lay “floating row cover” over them (basically very lightweight fabric, fairly inexpensive on Amazon or garden supply websites) and use weights on the sides to protect the seeds until they sprout leaves. You could try an old floursack towel or t-shirt if you’re just growing a few.

You can also start the seeds inside and then plant out seedlings, but the caveat is that they won’t grow quite as big and tall. Apparently they hate having their roots disturbed and never totally recover from the shock of being transplanted. But if giant isn’t the goal - like if you’re planning to cut them for bouquets - this can also be a benefit.

Although I don't like the birds eating my seeds before they sprout, I love letting some of the flowers go to seed in the garden for the birds to enjoy, especially the goldfinches. If you want living birdfeeders, plant a few where you can see them from your window.

Favorite Varieties

Summer 2023: my 5 top varieties are Soraya, Panache, Starburst Greenburst, Rouge Royale, and ProCut Peach. I’m realizing that I like branching varieties quite a bit...

It’s my first time growing Soraya and I'm a big fan already. Nice long stems, slender but rigid, beautifully formed flowers, perfect size for bouquets, and multiple stems per plant. Next year I’m going to grow way more of them.

Panache and Greenburst are so pretty with their shaggy ruffles.

Rouge Royale is amazing for fall.The deep burgundy/chocolate colored blooms are a dramatic look in either the garden or a vase... I like to mix them with golden sunflowers or with peach and maroon tones.

And ProCut Peach... I think this could be the only single stem I’m going to grow next year. It’s a nice soft yellow that blends well with pinks and peaches.

And finally, here are a couple pics of sunflower bouquets from my first year working on a (mostly) vegetable farm near Richmond, VA.

I learned a ton while I was there and have so many great memories of that year. :)

Off to the farmers' market!