Growing sunflowers is the perfect summertime hobby. It’s inexpensive, doesn’t need to take much room, creates joy, and you’re likely to be successful even on your first try. 

I’m always amazed by tall flowers. And, of course, sunflowers are at the top of the list. Maybe it’s because I’m impatient, and their no-holds-barred growth satisfies my need for quick results. Every year, I plant rows of sunflowers, but I also do random sunflower plantings, tucking them into various nooks and beds in the rest of the garden. A few sunflowers here and there in the veggie patch or at the corner of a perennial bed adds cheer and a vertical element. 

The sunflowers grown by farmers to provide us with snacks, cooking oil, and bird food are usually pretty plain, yellow, and uniformly short to mid-height, so they’re easy to harvest and won’t lodge (tip over) in the wind. But, at home, the varieties span from short, 18-inch tall plants to mammoth sunflowers that can be taller than your garage roof. Consider the following traits when choosing sunflowers to fit into your garden or patio.

Branching vs. single-stemmed flowers

Most sunflowers are called single-stemmed, meaning they’ll make one big bloom per plant. Depending on the variety and conditions, my single-stemmed sunflowers will sometimes put out a smaller second or third bloom farther down the stalk after I have cut the main bloom, but they’re usually a one-and-done. 

Branching sunflowers typically have smaller individual flowers, but the stems will branch out, and the plant will grow several or even a dozen or more flowers. While you won’t find a mammoth sunflower in a branching variety, many still create 5-6 inch blooms perfect for supplying every vase in your house. 

Dwarf sunflowers

While I have a weakness for skyscraper-type sunflowers brushing the clouds, dwarf sunflowers are amazing for containers on the deck, borders, and edges and provide weeks of bright color. Many are branching, meaning you’ll get tons of blooms over the course of several weeks. 

Let your imagination run wild with a packet of dwarf sunflower seeds. Plant them along a fence, line the sidewalk up to the house, or use them in a large planter with a few African marigolds or some Salvia in the center for a bee bonanza. 

Not just yellow anymore

The old-fashioned yellow sunflower with the dark center is a classic, and you can’t go wrong with it. But breeders have created fantastic colors and color combos, including orange, burgundy, pale yellow, creamy whites, and even rare super dark colors. Lemon and rose-colored blooms and a range of harvest oranges bring even more bright colors. 

Growing Conditions for Sunflowers

Fertile soil, ample water, good drainage, and full sun. It’s what all sunflowers need, no matter the color, size, or growth habit. 

Sunflowers famously follow the sun across the sky, tracking it with their flowers. But, perhaps the name should be due to their love of ‘shine. Sunflowers need full sunshine; without it, they’ll be pale, spindly, and sad. However, that doesn’t mean you can only plant them in a field with no trees for a mile. My sunflowers regularly grow to giant proportions with only 5-6 hours of sunlight daily (less than the recommended eight). My best sunflower growing spot gets only five hours of sunshine per day, but those five hours are in the middle of the day and early afternoon when the sun is the most powerful. 

Sunflowers do best in well-drained, fertile soil. Heavy clay or extremely sandy soils can spell trouble. Besides those two extremes, they’re happy to make a go of it. They are heavy feeders and will do much better with a nice spade full of compost or aged manure in their spot. Work the compost or aged manure into the soil before planting, and they’ll happily grow dark green and strong. 

Planting Sunflowers

Sunflowers are usually planted directly in the location where they are to grow. They can be planted anytime after the last spring frosts are over, although they germinate better as the soil warms. Plant them about ½ inch deep. Spacing varies depending on the size of the mature sunflower plant. Cover the seeds and water them well, and wait for them to pop up in a week or so. 

Sunflowers can be started indoors in trays, but they dislike root disturbance, so don’t start them more than about two weeks early. If birds or squirrels like to dig your sunflower seeds up before they sprout, it’s worth a try to start them indoors and then transplant them after the last spring frost. A little mulch can also help with the birds. 

Single-stemmed sunflowers are gorgeous, but you’ll only get one main bloom per stem or per seed planted. To keep your garden in bright sunflower blooms for weeks, try succession planting. Starting just after your last frost in spring, plant sunflowers every 10-14 days. Stop when they’ll no longer have time to mature before your first frost in fall. For example, if the variety you are planting needs 60 days to flower, stop succession planting about two months before your first fall frost.

Sunflowers for many uses

With all these uses, you’ll want to plant extra. Your imagination is the only limit on what you can do with sunflowers, and since they are inexpensive to plant, try a few of the ideas below this year.

Cut flowers

Sunflowers are hugely popular as cut flowers, and it only takes a few stems to make an entire bouquet. With a small bouquet of sunflowers going for ten dollars or more, you’ll save money, enjoy loads of blooms, and they’ll last much longer in the vase since they were freshly harvested. 

Harvest blooms as soon as the first petals have started to unfurl when the sunflower still looks half closed. Leave the stems long for now (you can always cut them to fit later) and strip off the foliage, leaving only the top smaller set of leaves if you want some greenery. 

Privacy

Sunflowers make a living green natural privacy screen all summer–exactly when you want to be out in the yard. They are inexpensive, easy to plant and care for, and perfect for areas where you can’t put up a fence or screen. 

For privacy, plant at least two rows, and three is better. They’ll grow up lush and green and effectively screen the view. Even after the flowers have faded, the plants will keep on living, pushing energy into their seeds. 

Try creating a private garden room by walling it off with sunflowers. Include a seating area and a small table for a quiet dinner spot in the garden. Planting a patch of sunflowers around a central grass area makes a cool summertime fort for kids to play in.

Bird food

Little birds perching on a sunflower head and prying an individual seed loose, then flying off with their prize, are reason enough to grow a few sunflowers for our feathered friends. All you have to do is enjoy the bloom and let it naturally mature into a head full of seeds. They’ll do the rest. Of course, if you have the room, you can plant a big patch and harvest some to supply your birdfeeder.

Roasting seeds

Birds don’t have to be the only ones eating your sunflower seeds. Roasting seeds at home lets you control the amount of salt and what kind of oil is used and create custom seasoning blends. You’ll know exactly what went into your snack. Check out this recipe for roasting in-shell sunflower seeds from the National Sunflower Association.  

Vertical supports

Larger varieties of sunflowers grow quite stout stems. Instead of using a trellis or pole to support climbing plants, let them vine up a sunflower. Morning glories look stunning wrapped around a sunflower stalk, and in early autumn, you can let your fall-planted peas use the stalks as a trellis, too. 

How to Grow a True Giant Sunflower

If you haven’t seen a giant sunflower, you’ve got to check them out. No picture can truly capture the absolute hugeness of giant sunflowers and the awe they inspire that they grew so tall in only a couple of months. The biggest sunflowers sport leaves larger than dinner plates, stalks the size of a baseball bat, and flowers that get so heavy with seeds that the whole plant starts to droop.

• Choose a variety that reaches tree-like proportions. While many sunflowers can reach head-high, some are particularly bred to be huge and commonly reach heights of ten feet or more even under less-than-ideal conditions.

• Provide lots of compost or aged manure and loose, loamy soil. Sunflowers planted in hard, compacted soil often suffer due to difficulty growing good root systems. The plant above ground is a direct reflection of the plant below. 

• Water during dry periods. While sunflowers will grow in dry conditions, they need regular water to achieve their maximum cloud-scraping potential. 

• Plant them in a small grouping for mutual support and easier staking. Although they are quite strong, a twelve-foot-tall sunflower can catch a lot of wind in a summer storm. 

• And, of course, give them a sunny spot!

I always plant a few of the true giants. What other plant can I sow directly into an empty spot by just pushing the seed into the soil, forgetting about it for a while, and then get a stiff neck looking up at the basketball-sized blooms ten feet above the ground? Half a dozen one-story tall sunflowers will instantly get attention and give you some gardening credibility in the neighborhood.