The common sunflower (Helianthus annuus) with its familiar blooms has been cultivated by Native Americans as far back as 3,000 B.C. They utilized these lofty giants in medicine and as a vital food source for the nutrient-packed seeds or for making into sunflower oil, meal and flour. But as it turns out, the once wild ancestor with a golden flower head is anything but common.
With dazzling blooms that come in an ever changing palette of sun-drenched colors, the once towering native plant of the Americas is turning heads in a big, bold and colorful new way. The sunflowers of today have expanded the design possibilities in the garden with more shapes, sizes, and colors than ever before.
Annual sunflowers have been bred to grow beyond the standard sunny yellow blooms, with a new range of colors from golden yellow, orange, and ruby red, to bronze and even white. There are branching varieties with multiple flower heads as well as dwarf cultivars that reach only 1 to 2 feet tall. Some are bred to produce especially large seeds, while pollenless types clean up as the cream of the crop for cut flowers with a longer shelf life.
Layers of appeal
Sunflowers continue on as a great tradition of the American garden for the beauty they bring with their showy flower heads modeled on the sun's shape. But these cheery sun worshipers also attract colorful butterflies with nectar-rich blooms, followed by a wide variety of songbird species with high-energy seeds from late summer to winter. And if these power-packed seeds can make your bird feeding stations a favorite destination spot for feathered friends, just image what they can do when growing in your garden.
Design ideas
Compact varieties growing 1 to 3 feet tall are great options for container gardens or as border or edging plants in the flower garden. Taller, multi-branching types grow 4 to 6 feet tall, with some varieties producing 10 or more flowers per plant for a bird buffet with ten-fold appeal. Mingle multi-branching types in flower beds and borders, as focal points in the vegetable garden, or arranged in semi-circles to create sunflower forts where children can dream and play. The towering giants are especially grand if you're looking for a fast-growing hedgerow, living fence or barrier to disguise an unsightly view.
With so many options to choose from, there's no need to limit yourself to growing only one variety or one plant. In fact, growing several varieties with different forms, colors and heights amplifies the visual interest in your garden and visual attraction to butterflies and birds. Sunflowers rely on cross-pollination for best yields (some are totally reliant), so they will only produce ample seed when two or more plants are in bloom.
Get your garden growing with colorful blooms from one of the most impressive annuals there is. Not only will the dangling seedheads dance in the wind, but the movement of countless songbirds as they dine on a smorgasbord of seedheads is a mood brightener and quite entertaining. What could be better than that?
--Kris Wetherbee
The Joker is a tempting blend of red, orange, mahogany, gold, and all the bi-colors in-between.
SUNFLOWER POWER
From pint-size blooms to giant size seedheads and everything in-between, here's an ensemble of varieties that really shine.
* Denotes additional pollen free flowers listed in other categories.
Dwarf divas
- Microsun*: Grows 15 to 20 inches tall, with a solid mass of foliage topped by a profusion of saffron petals surrounding russet-colored disks.
- Pacino: Great container plant, growing 16 to 24 inches tall with sturdy branches topped by bright yellow flowers.
- Solar Chocolate Gold*: Ultimate container flower, growing 14 to 16 inches tall and 12 inches wide. Golden yellow rays surround a deep cocoa center.
Pollen-free flowers
- Buttercream: Well-branched plants growing up to 5 feet tall, with 4 to 6 inch creamy French vanilla blooms.
- Sunbright: Non-branching plant growing 5 to 6 feet tall, with 4 to 6 inch sunny yellow blooms.
- Sunrich Series: Non-branching plants grow 4 to 5 feet tall in flower colors ranging from golden yellow to golden orange, depending on type.
- Waooh*: Compact, bushy plants growing 2 to 3 feet tall, with radiant golden petals surrounding velvety charcoal center disks.
Out-of-the-box colors
- Autumn Beauty: Multi-branching plant grows to 5 feet tall, with single and bicolor blooms up to 8 inches across in shades of yellow, bronze, and purple-red.
- Cherry Rose*: Blissful bicolor of rosy-mahogany tipped in sunny lemon with a velvety dark center disk; grows 5 feet tall.
- Peach Passion*: Beautiful branching type to 4 feet tall, with peach colored blooms and a light center disk.
- Red Sun: Multi-branching, growing up to 6 feet tall, with dark centers surrounded by petals radiating from yellow at the base to a warm bronzy maroon.
- Ring of Fire: Multi-branching bicolor to 4 feet tall, with 5 to 6 inch flowers surrounding a richly colored dark disk and glowing rays of petals from dark red at the center to golden yellow at the tips.
- Soraya*: Dark mahogany center disk surrounded by halos of luminescent orange petals on multi-stemmed plants growing 6 feet tall.
- Strawberry Blonde*: Multi-branching plant growing 5 to 6 feet tall, with a dark center disk surrounded by rays of rosy pink touched by subtle yellow.
- The Joker*: Fanciful mix of fully-double and semi-double 4 to 5 inch flowers in a two-tone mix of warm sunny color and autumn hues on multi-branching plants growing to 6 feet.
Unique attributes
- Double Quick Orange*: Single-stem, fully-double golden flowers on 4 to 5 foot tall plants.
- Giant Sungold: Fluffy and fully-double, vivid golden yellow flowers up to 8 inches in diameter on multi-branching 6 foot tall plants.
- Starburst Panache*: Bold foliage and thistle like buds burst into beautiful golden saffron manes surrounding a rich brown central disk; multi-branching plants reach 5 feet tall.
- Zebulon: Sunny yellow rays surround a bright green center showcasing an amazing geometrical pattern; single-stem growing up to 3 feet tall.
Seed snacking supreme
- Snack Mix: Festive display of flowers on 5 to 7 foot tall plants, followed by doubly delicious, plump and very flavorful seeds.
- Sunseed: Profusion of large kernels on 10 to 14 inch heads filled with delicious sunflower seeds on plants growing 4 to 5 foot tall.