Free Sunflower Seeds

Be a part of The Great Sunflower Project and get a packet of free sunflower seeds. They're tracking bees pollinating sunflowers for food production. A very worthwhile project.

Just got my Stokes Spring Garden Collection Catalog in the mail today. If you go to Stokes and place your order online before June 15, 2007 they will include a free packet of sunflower seeds with your order. Just include the code "#5024" in the "Additional Order Instructions" box to receive your free pack of 20 seeds.

Both of these free orders are worth looking into.

Bold Colored Sunflowers

If you live in a white brick or sided house, or any othe light colour, yellow sunflowers seem to get washed out when planted along the foundation. To make a bold statement and avoid that washed out look you need to plant some brightly coloured sunflowers along the foundations. A good choice would be the reds, blacks, almost blacks and bright orange sunflowers. These will give you a nice backdrop for your other plantings in front of the sunflowers.

White Sunflowers

White sunflowers can really brighten up a dark wall. If your house is a dark brick like red, or a dark coloured siding like brown, planting white sunflowers along the foundation will really brighten up the house. The green of the sunflower leaves makes a wonderful back drop for brightly coloured flowers planted in front of your sunflowers.

Taking Stock

Did you know that you can use your tall sunflowers as a living trellis? Sunflower stalks are study enough to support just about any climbing plant. Morning glories are a wonderful choice because of their abundance of flowers. You can use all different colour combinations. Colours that blend in with each other like Black Eyed Susan vine and any of the yellow sunflowers. Or you can go for contrast and grow white sunflowers with Black Morning glories. Or Black sunflowers with white wisteria vine. The combinations are endless. You can also grow peas and pole beans this way.
Plant all of these seeds around the base of your sunflower plants. They will climb up the sunflower stalk

Winter Entertainment.

Sunflowers

Sunflowers offer winter entertainment when left in the ground. If you leave your sunflowers in the ground they will be natural bird feeders and add some interest to the winter garden. As bird feeders they don’t require you to trudge out in the snow every day to fill them.

I grow a row of the giant ones at the end of my vegetable garden. The heads get so large and heavy that they hang down and face the ground. This means that the birds who try to eat the seeds must hang upside down to get them. As the birds work their way towards the center of the seed head they have to stretch, often losing their footing.

Even though there are several sunflower plants the birds all seem to favor one over the other. They will chase each other away to get at the sunflower seeds. I’ve watched as the blue jays actually knock each other off the plant. Even though the blue jays are larger than the hairy and downy woodpeckers the jays take off when the woodpeckers show up.

I could watch the bird’s antics at the sunflowers for hours.

Moonshadow

Moonshadow is an almost white sunflower. This is a pollen free F1 Hybrid, perfect if you're allergic to pollen. Moonshadow matures about 55 days from planting. Moonshadow will reach heights of 4 feet.Moonshadow has a branching habit.Blooms are white with a yellow disc that are 3 to 5 inches across.




Jade is also a pollen free sunflower. Creamy green petals surround a light green center. Jade is well branching and will reach heights of 4 feet. You will get lots of 4 to 5 inch blooms from Jade. Jade matures about 55 days from planting.



Giant Sungold is very much like the dwarf sunflower Teddy Bear, only well, giant. It will reach a height of 5 feet and has a very branching habit. Giant Sungold will be covered in 5 to 6 inch double blooms. A very sturdy plant with the blooms lasting longer on the stalk than than regular single bloom varieties. A wonderful addition to any garden.