What should I do to this sunflower?!

[FusionChefGeoff]

Only recently bought this and it had some nice flowers for about 10 minutes!! Should I dead head it?! Leave it?!

Picture

Following with interest OP.

I have one of those and had dedheaded it. Looks awful, unfortunately.

New flowers are coming up now though, but below the old ones, so the hollow, chopped storks will still show on top.

Are they unopened flower heads on the sides of the spent flower? Sorry- its hard to see the detail and looks a bit creepy- like a giant venus fly trap 😂

I'm only a novice gardener myself. Have you used any liquid fertiliser? Is that the height the plant was supposed to be? It looks cramped in that pot- but maybe is just the angle of the pic. Personally, I'd remove the dead flower to give the others space to grow, but hopefully someone with more experience will come along to advise🌻

Photo.

I'm wondering if would be best to chop everything above the new flowers now. They won't be visible and will be all bunched up otherwise.

Hope someone in the know can tell us!

If you leave the heads, the plant will put all its energy into growing seeds - from its pov, job done! If you frustrate it by cutting the heads off, it may have another go and produce more flowers.

@stickygotstuck you can certainly cut those stalks a bit lower. The colour shows they’re dying and the plant has no further use for them.

@CC4712 it’s one of the dwarf strains of sunflower that have become popular in recent years.

@MereDintofPandiculation , thank you!

I have just cut those. Left a couple of leaves under it, wondering if it would be best to cut those too.

I have seen a few tiny buds below those new ones too.

Pic attacked, hopefully.

That's looking much better!