Sunflower seeds from heads AND clematis that was never planted in ground

[CurlyhairedAssassin]

Hi, I wonder if anyone could help me with either of these questions

Firstly: DS2 managed to grow a humungous sunflower this year with a seed given to him by nursery - it's like something out of Jack and the Beanstalk! If I save the seeds from it and plant them next year, will they grow as big as the parent plant or to grow one as big next year would we need to buy a packet of seeds? (I'm a gardening novice and seem to recall that plants grown from seed fromt he parent plant don't always look quite the same as the parent, which is why I'm asking)

Secondly: I bought a couple of clematis during the summer on a whim and planted one of them, but never got round to clearing a space for the other one so it's still in its pot. Would it be OK to plant it this time of year or should I wait till spring or something?

Oooo yes i would love to know the answer to the sunflower one too as we grew an absolute humungous one from a seed and i have kept all the seeds to hopefully grow next year
In answer to your second question i had a wisteria in a pot i got last August which stayed outside in a bucket of water all last winter, i planted it summer time this year (a year on) and it is thriving beautifully so so long as there is sun and rain it should be fine i would say. Clematis do die down in the autumn/winter time so don't think you have killed it as it will regrow next spring.

Sunflower's - depends on what variety. IIRC then there's bog standard sunflowers, which should be just fine. Then there are some F1 hybrids, which were bred by crossing two very specific parents - if your plant was the result of an F1 hybrid seed then you may well get a sunflower, but it may look nothing like the one you had this year in the detail (height, colour, size of head...). So if you want to know exactly what type of sunflower you're going to get, but if it was "just" a sunflower and your don't mind if its a bit different plant the seeds and see what you get.

Clematis - I'd plant it now. The roots will have a chance to get established over the winter and it should do better in the spring. Not all types of clematis die down in the autumn/winter (depends what pruning group they belong to - although one of mine that doesn't usually die back had all the top growth killed last winter and sprouted again, just didn't have as many flowers as usual this year - should be stunning next year though). Just remember to plant it nice and deep and to make sure the soil around the planting hole is well drained so it doesn't get waterlogged.

re: the sunflowers. I had 9ft monsters last year and saved all the heads.

Planted lots of the seeds and they came up ok but I didn't look after them as well as last year, not enough water, left them in pots too long, got a bit cold and they ended up as several headed 5ft sunflowers. So very pretty but no where near as huge.

I gave my neighbour some of the seedlings and they obviously looked after then properly and I could see their giant sunflowers poking over the fence taunting me .

So it seems to come down to looking after them just right to get a monster flower.

true we had an evergreen clematis in our previous garden..perfect to plant now that the soil is still warm...

Tangle is right - F1 seeds prolly won't come true. Save them anyway if you're not sure what they are, you've a good chance of a decent plant.

Plant the clematis now as it has a better chance in the earth. It's not so cold here, not sure where you are. I planted (moved anyway) one 2 weeks ago and it is fine

Thanks, all. Will plant the clematis before it gets too cold.

As for saving the seeds, How long should I wait before I get the seeds off? And do I just pick them out or what? Keep the biggest fattest looking ones?

I will definitely use this year's seeds as an experiment but maybe also buy a packet when it comes to planting time as an insurance - the kids have taken great delight in just how flippin tall the big one was - the stalk was fatter than their arms. Come to think of it are they easy to chop down and pull up? Will I need a tree surgeon?