Giant Sunflowers - Helianthus giganteus

A neat thing about sunflowers is that they are easy to grow. It's not long after you put the seeds in the ground that they come up.

They need to be thinned so they have plenty of space as they grow. A big mistake I made was not thinning out the ones in the front of the house. I felt bad about having to pull any out. The ones on the other side of the house were further apart and are grew up with much thicker stalks.

One day the wind stirred up and the ones in the front of the house were already 5 feet tall. But because there is 12 of them in a 4 foot area, their stalks are flimsy. So at 4 in the morning I'm outside roping the sunflowers up. I don't have this problem with the ones on the back side of the house.

Now into August the crowded sunflowers are up to the gutters (10 feet tall) and I have roped them up 3 times.

Imagine if I had thinned them, they would have been 15 feet tall.

Just opening

We get some pretty insane winds here and it leaves me wondering how do the sunflowers keep from breaking. I found that they get wimpy so they are flexible. It's a different wimpy than when they are low on water. When they are low on water just the leaves wilt. They almost seem to be thinking.

If you ever felt sunflower leaves, you will feel the bristly hairs all over the leaves.

Anemones in the ocean also have very fine bristles. When I worked in the pet store we found that the anemones fight for space, when they touch each other, they hurt each other.

I have noticed the same thing with the sunflowers. They do everything in their power to avoid the leaves of the other sunflower plants. The set I have in front that is crowded often have wilted leaves even though they are well watered. Then those leaves die and I must cut them off. They are hurting each other. The leaves that are not touching each other are fine.

That's how they know its windy and they get wimpy. Because they can't help but touch each other when the wind blows them around.

These two have just bloomed, they are not low on water or on the way out.

As the crowded set has been blooming, some of the petals of the flowers are curled, meaning they are root bound, even though there is a couple feet of soil in front of them.

London Ring
Sunflower

Sunflowers can be found on Facebook farm apps. Click on the pic below to go to a lens about Farm games on Facebook.

Sunflower Seed Waffles

2 Cups Krusteaz Pancake mix
2 Tablespoons melted shortening
2 ½ ounces sunflower seeds
¾ to one cup water

Bake in waffle iron, serve with melted butter,
apple sauce or apple butter.

This nutty treat is delicious and simple,
good lunch time picker-upper,
great with maple syrup for brunch, too.

Types of Sunflower Seed Loving Birds

I know for sure the jays love big seeds. Grosbeaks, blackbirds and finches, depending on your area. The Flickers, and woodpeckers like the seeds if left in the blossom base when it gets older and full of bugs.

Robins prefer worms and the small song birds just don't care for the big seeds.

Cherry Valley Feeders Sunflower Wire Mesh Bird Feeder

Bird Brain NinArt Glass & Mesh Bird Feeder Sunflower

Country Kitchen Bird Feeder

Attracting & Feeding Wild Birds
(Quick & Easy)

NORTH STATES SUNFLOWER/ PEANUT BIRD FEEDER

To my surprise as the sunflowers are blooming and the petals are starting to die, the centers are getting much larger. I was worried that I wouldn't get many seeds from them.

The one above is my biggest at about 10" across. It was only 6" across. The crowded ones are quickly catching up.

A friend of mine has a photo of his kid hanging on the stalk of a sunflower. From what I can tell the thing must be 15 feet tall to be that thick. It amazes me what comes out of a simple seed. Life is truly amazing.

My plan for sunflowers next year is to have them all along the back fence, but with a foot and a half between each one. Plenty of manure and to have them in a short trench so the soil can hold water for them better. The potato plants will be there at their base as they grow and also the nasturtiums will vine between them.

The sunflowers in back this year have not had any problem with the nasturtiums growing and winding around their bases, and it looks very nice. One of the sunflowers is 8 feet tall, and is where the soil isn't that great, plus it even has some marbled leaves.

Better soil, big plants, more privacy and lots of wild bird food.

Panoramic Images
Buy at AllPosters.com

The bigest one here, didn't fall from all the wind, it ended up at 13 inches across. Once the seeds started to fall out, I took it down so I could keep some seeds for next year.

Here's a photo of it's marbled leaves

Here's the harvest of the others that were crowded. The first big wind of the fall took them down quickly.

After you get your sunflowers down, rub off the little things that are on top of the seeds. I also cooked the ones that were for the birds, or they mold.

With all the stalk left, I feel that I need a chipper, so I went on line and found that some places use sunflower stalks to make paper. And I also found this on making trelis with the stalks. Perfect for next year as I will have a ton of nastursiums.

Here's my crowded group looking down at me.