Download Add Some Sunshine

Urban Horticulture
Add Some Sunshine to Your Garden- Try Sunflowers
By: Dr. Joan Bradshaw, CED, Natural Resources
G
ardeners are rediscovering dual-purpose flowers that not only make the garden beautiful but can also
be used to bring the beauty of outdoors inside. One such flower is the sunflower. Sunflower
(Helianthus annuus) is an annual plant native to the Americas. It possesses a large inflorescence (flowering
head). The sunflower is named after its huge, fiery blooms, whose shape and image are often used to depict
the sun.
It has a rough, hairy stem, broad, coarsely toothed,
rough leaves and circular heads of flowers. The
heads consist of many
individual flowers which
mature into seeds, often
in the hundreds, on a
receptacle base. From
the Americas, sunflower
seeds were brought to
Europe in the 16th century, where, along with
sunflower oil, they became a widespread
cooking ingredient.
Leaves of the sunflower
can be used as cattle feed,
while the stems contain a
fiber which may be used
in paper production.
Just take a look at the gardening catalogs.
Sunflowers can be broadly divided into two types:
those grown for production of edible seeds and those
grown as ornamentals and cut flowers. Most gardeners will be interested in the ornamental sunflowers,
also known as Helianthus annuus.
Sunflowers come in heights
ranging from less than one
foot to ten feet and also come
in a wide range of flower colors. While brilliant yellow will
always be popular, you can
also choose from creamy
white, bronze, mahogany,
rusty red, burgundy and orange. Some types produce flowers with more than
one color. The center disk of the sunflower also adds
to the display and
goes through color
Moulin Rouge changes as the flower
To begin growing your
matures and seeds
own sunflower, choose
form.
cultivars that fit your
Sunbright, Sunrich
landscape. There are now
Lemon, Sunrich Ormore sunflowers than just
ange, Soraya and
the seed bearing giants
Moulin Rouge are
that many gardeners are
some that are recomfamiliar with.
mended for Florida.
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(continued from page 7) SUNFLOWERS
For best bouquet results, choose cultivars that are
pollen-less to prevent pollen from shedding onto a
tablecloth or other flowers in an arrangement.
beds, and many gardeners include a row of sunflowers in spring and fall vegetable gardens. After sowing
the seeds, water the bed well and then water it as
If you want to grow sunflowers for the delicious, nutritious seeds, make sure you choose varieties bred
for seed production, such as Mammoth Russian – also
known as Mammoth, Russian Giant and Gray Stripe.
These tall-growing sunflowers produce a single enormous flower at the top of the plant.
Mammoth Russian
needed to keep the soil moist – even lightly every day
if the weather is dry. Sunflowers should be harvested
in early morning before 10:00 a.m. It is best to cut the
stems and place them in warm water right away for
best results.
The versatility and variety of today’s sunflowers offer
something for almost every garden and gardener. If
you haven’t tried this plant lately, give it another look.
Mammoth Russian
Sunflowers are true to their name, they need to be
grown in full sun. Prepare a sunflower bed as you
would for planting most vegetables. They tolerate
heat and dry conditions and almost any soil type. The
pH preference is 6.5 to 7.5 and the addition of composted organic matter is beneficial. Plant seeds about
one-quarter inch deep directly into a prepared garden
bed. It’s common to plant sunflowers into landscape
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