The Great Sunflower Project!

[SgtMaj]

As for towering sunflowers, I love them.

Um... about quadruple that size is no longer "fun"... it's downright scarry to stand near them!  BTW, the variety in that pic doesn't look like the mammoth's that I planted last year.  They were single bloom plants.  The blooms were nearly 3ft diameter and heavy as all get out... too bad I didn't get to harvest the seeds from them... they all went to rot before they were ready to be pulled out... but the birds still enjoyed them.

[reinbeau]

Well, that plant was almost 10 feet tall, it may be multiple blooms but it was still a monster.  I like huge sunflowers - the bigger the better!  I don't usually plant them, though, they come up from seeds dropped the previous year from a planting I made three years ago or so.

[Brian D. Bray]

Did you see the size of the seeds they sent?  Those were the tiniest little sunflower seeds I've ever seen.  We'll see how big those plants end up!

As for towering sunflowers, I love them.

Is that a rising or setting sun flower?

[SgtMaj]

I just signed up for the sunflower project... we'll see how big those sunflowers get... wouldn't mind lining out the back fence with sunflowers... it would definately make the property more appealing to bees.

[Cindi]

Ann, don't worry about the size of the seeds.  The cultivar that is one of the ones that I plant (Soreya) is a humdinger in size when it grows, but the seed is tiny, very tiny, I am surprised that the end product is so magnificent.  Now the Russian giant, the seeds are big, really big.

I have thousands of sunflowers that came up from the vicinity of one of the sunflower patches.  I had to thin out hundreds upon hundreds to get the plants to have at least one foot between each one.  They must have room to grow, if they are too crowded they will not produce nice plants.  I will have to thin them again, to about 2 feet apart, that gives a beautiful stand.  YOu will see my pictures of the beautiful grove of sunflowers come later this summer.  They are everywhere!!!  Beautiful and most wonderful day, we all be lovin' and sharin' this great life.  Cindi

[SgtMaj]

I picked up a few packets of sunflower seeds (most of which I think I'll hang onto until next year) yesterday and set up 24 of them for germination... it's about 15 hours later, and almost half have already germinated and are sticking out their main root by as much as 2mm on the largest ones.

[SgtMaj]

Well, for lack of time, I didn't follow my normal proceedures when I took them from the bag and put them in the soil... and I think I lost a few, though there are a couple still emerging.  I think I'll wind up with about 18 out of those 24 I planted.  With any luck they'll take off now and bloom before fall.  The one I planted earlier is just about to bloom now.