Some time ago, I decided to attempt to grow sunflowers in my backyard. It was in part inspired by the mammoth sunnies I had the pleasure of seeing each year in Beach Haven New Jersey. These beauties line a single street and back a ball field and are without exaggeration 10-12' tall. It seemed simple enough. Buy seeds. Follow planting directions. Water plants. Voilà -- or so I thought. The plants did not do well in my acidic southern ocean county backyard soil, and when I managed to get one or two to grow, squirrels, groundhogs or other visitors would eat the seedlings before they had a chance to grow beyong 1-2" tall. Last year I successfully grew "Sunny" a mammoth variety sunflower (Girasol Gigante) whose seeds I took from one of the Beach Haven sunnies after it had taken its last bow in the late days of August. Here she is, grown in a terra cotta 16" clay pot on my back deck. For anyone else who is as taken by sunnies as I am and as determined to grow them in their backyard, the purpose of this blog is to share what I know about growing these beautiful plants and to invite comments regarding the same as I too am still learning.
Thanks so much for your blog. I have seedlings going now. I live in Florida and used the peat pots, hoping to plant them directly when they reach a few inches high. However, we have lots of rabbits so I'm going to use the deterrent that you recommended. Do you know if this will make the seeds dangerous for the birds?
ReplyDelete