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!)

Beautiful Elle

This is our effort

Lovely! Much straighter and neater than ours. When they all flower they're going to look stunning!

We've got lots of green growth with teeny tiny flower heads on top, not sure why?

cake there are soooooo many different varieties. it's mind boggling

Cake I was told to strip all the lower leaves off but I see you haven't done that- is there a reason why/why not? I was told to do it to my tomatoes as well?

We just planted the seeds to see what happened Good tip for next year!

I can imagine it's to make it that little bit harder for snails to climb up.
I don't bother. I protect the seedlings (with coffee grounds and egg shells) but that's about it.

thenewaveragebear The reason for taking leaves off tomato plants, as I understand is a) to stop the fruit being shaded and b) so that the plant puts it energy into the fruit and not maintaining the leaves. If you are trying to grow really tall sunflowers I guess the latter would be why.

I thought with tomatoes it was so that the plant doesn't waste energy growing leaves and grows fruit instead, so possibly is the same for sunflowers.

I go on holiday on Friday and I reckon all of mine are going to flower while I'm away and die before I get home! I am going to ask my cat feeder to take a picture

they flower for a while. so unless you go away for a month you should see them in bloom.

Me again! Back from holiday to find a row of glorious sunflowers! A few weeks ago I poured beer on the smallest ones, and one of them has now grown three flower heads and appears to be trying for a fourth! Is this normal??

What do i do with the seed heads? I have three cats so can't really encourage bird life to the garden, should I just keep them in the shed to dry and then replant next year? A few have suffered in the weather and have broken stems so the flowers have died already.

Told you beer works!
I'm in Scotland so mine aren't out yet.
🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻

I found some bird seed spilt in the Gagarin. So I swept it up and put it on some nearby waste land.
There are now about 15 sunflowers over 5 feet tall

The ground is rock hard and they have just stood up without any support. I have never been able to,grow sunflowers in the garden

I have just got a new tumble dryer and found a pack of sunflower seeds down the back - is it worth planting them now or wait for next year? ( Date on back is best before sept 18)

Twinkle I think you'd have to wait till next year? Mine took at least a month to be repotted and then a further 2 months to flower (at least)- if you planted them now it would be too cold? Unless you have a conservatory or greenhouse?

Saw some amazing sunflowers today, they were easily 8 ft tall and had thick stems, probably 2in diameter. Absolute monsters. I can only dream of that sort of success.....

I am guessing very poor soil is the answer and just planting them on the top.

Will staple them to the calender for next year ;)