Sunflowers

[thenewaveragebear1983]

Ok, so I know you're all uber gardeners and I'm a total novice, in fact, I've never grown anything. But I'm so proud of ds's my sunflowers. We've numbered them all today so we can track their growth! Number 2 is over 6ft tall!
Anyone else growing any? Do you fancy a blue peter style sunflower competition? (Hopefully some of you remember that and I haven't just outed myself as old!)

[ElleDubloo]

Hi! I scattered a few sunflower seeds in my vegetable patch, and had no idea how big they'd get (having never grown them before) and they're actually starting to take over the patch. What's a Blue Peter style competition? (I'm guessing we measure them?) I'll take a photo tomorrow.

[thenewaveragebear1983]

Elle when I was young, Blue Peter always did a sunflower competition with photos of the tallest ones all round the country. I used to beg my DM to let us join in but we never did.
Would love to see pics of yours, I didn't realise you could scatter the seeds I thought they had to be up against a wall!

[AnarchyKitty]

I feed mine beer to make them grow taller.

[thenewaveragebear1983]

Ooh anarchy that's interesting. All of ours were planted from seeds on the same day but something is definitely different in the soil as some are huge and others are tiny! What is it in beer that they like I wonder?

[AnarchyKitty]

thenewaveragebear1983 I really don't know. I was told it by an old guy when I lived in London. So I just do it once a week. The first one I grew that way reached the roof top! It was fun sawing that one down!
So to experiment for you , I've just poured a poncy craft beer in one and a McEwans in the other.

[thenewaveragebear1983]

I'm going to try that later. My dbro gave us some pale ales for Christmas and they're still unopened!

[Silverthorn]

I love sunflowers. Here are ours. They're only about 3ft high but I've grown them in pots in with some green beans so may need some feed or beer perhaps.

[ElleDubloo]

Here are our sunflowers. I only wanted a couple, but didn't know what to do with the rest of the packet and didn't think they would all germinate, so I chucked the whole lot in there. I didn't support them, they're staying upright by themselves.

[ElleDubloo]

Oops, forgot attachment.

[Alcea]

This is our first time doing them too. The kids are fascinated watching them grow!

Possible stupid question (and sorry to bring negativity to the thread, lol) but what happens with them? Will they just die off in the Winter and new seeds will need to be planted again next year?

[JT05]

If you leave the seed head on the birds will enjoy the seeds. I always plant new seeds each year.

[thenewaveragebear1983]

The big flower head loses its petals and underneath there is a big seed head. My uncle used to have one in his dusty old lounge and it used to fascinate me!

Can you grow the seeds the next year? I can't really encourage bird life to my garden as we have 3 cats!

[Wandastartup]

Mine seeded themselves and I have 2 growing from
Last years!

[AnarchyKitty]

thenewaveragebear1983
Photo 1: Poncy craft beer.
Photo 2: Mcewans and my triffad Nasturtiums.

[ElleDubloo]

The first of our sunflowers to flower. Bizarrely it has its back to the sun.

[thenewaveragebear1983]

Beautiful Elle

I think ours are a few weeks off flowering yet, a couple have clearly grown what will eventually be the flower, but most are still just leaves. Have given the smallest of the row a swig of some Cornish dark ale today, maybe that will help them along!

[thenewaveragebear1983]

We have flowers! The beer definitely seems to have given them a boost as the smallest ones have shot up by a foot at least in a week. And these three beauties have opened up.

[DryIce]

I am ridiculously proud of my sunflowers, not being much of a gardener and having flung some seeds about off hand in the winter.

My tallest one must be almost 10 ft!

[DryIce]

Ok maybe that is an exaggeration, I am from a metric country! But it towers over my 6ft husband!

[YellowLawn]

the birds and squirrels will like the seedheads.
we usually keep the seedhead of the tallest one, dry it, then use the seeds next year.
our tallest one is well over 6ft now without flowerhead yet. 'mother plant' was well over 2m last year.

[elephantoverthehill]

I christened these my 'industrial sunflowers' as the seed heads are so big. They self seeded in my allotment. They are almost over now. A friend suggested nailing the seed head to the shed wall for the birds.

[YellowLawn]

for scale: the trellis us 6ft high

[thenewaveragebear1983]

Dry yes, I think our tallest one is around 7 ft now? It definitely towers above the fence.

[ElleDubloo]

We have a crowd of sunflowers in the vegetable patch now. Half a dozen of them got battered by the recent heavy rained and have bowed over. Several already chewed by slugs. I've cut off the more presentable ones and put them in a vase indoors.

Found a fat bee 🐝 in one large flower.

[ElleDubloo]

Sunflowers in a vase on the dining table.