Sunflowers always make me smile. Simple and bold, they announce “summer” even when rain is falling. This year they are thriving in our exceptionally hot season, turning the garden into a bright, cheerful display.
We grow many varieties and save seed each year. On the right is part of my friend Carla’s garden near Roma, Italy. The tall plants there came from seed I sent her; they relish the Italian heat and have grown huge under her care.
In winter we leave many of the seed heads for birds. Dozens of finches and tits flock in, performing acrobatics to strip out the nourishing seeds—fat and protein that help them through the cold months.
I was especially interested when my Twitter friend Pete Taylor (aka 5olly) launched a Sunflower Trial for 2014. I sent Pete some seed-based recipes for sunflower seed butter and sunflower “cheese” for his blog. As part of the trial we received three packets of Thompson & Morgan seed: Solar Flash, Magic Roundabout and Mongolian Giant.
Alongside those trial packs we sowed saved seed from our own collection (the original variety name has been forgotten), a compact strain called Short Stuff, Hidatsa Sunflower (a traditional staple of the Hidatsa people along the Missouri River) and Vanilla Ice from Ben at Higgledy Garden.
Here’s a visual update of how they looked this weekend.We planted the sunflowers in a bed with squashes; you can just spot a Hidatsa squash trailing along the edge of the bed. These are the Short Stuff plants entered in the short-sunflower portion of the challenge—delightfully compact.
Here are the other short varieties—Solar Flash—with dramatic blooms and surprisingly large leaves for such small plants.
Magic Roundabout is forming masses of buds and multiple flowers per stem—very productive and showy.
Here’s a moody portrait of a Hidatsa sunflower, with a bud shown below. The Hidatsa strain offers sturdy stalks and large, edible seeds—a reliable choice for both food and wildlife.
Overall, this season’s sunflowers have been a joy—from compact varieties suited for small beds to tall, dramatic plants that feed birds later in the year. They bring color, wildlife, and the simple pleasure of summer to the garden.