Growing sunflowers
the happiest plants in the garden!
If you don’t have a garden, don’t worry – sunflowers can be grown in pots so long as you have a nice bright and sunny indoor space to put them. Follow the instructions below, and good luck
Planting the seeds indoors for a good early start
Place the compost into a pot and fill almost to the top. Water this compost and allow the water to drain out of the bottom.
Poke your finger in the compost to make a hole for one of your seeds.
Pop the sunflower seed into the hole, and then cover with a little compost.
Put the pot/s on individual saucers, and place somewhere sunny such as a windowsill. When the compost feels dry to touch, then give your sunflower a little water. Don’t drown it!
You should see your new plant poke through the soil after about 1 or 2 weeks
When the sunflower grows too big for the pot, plant it in a bigger flowerpot or outside if you have somewhere warm and sunny, and the risk of frost has gone.
Transplanting into the garden proper
Choose a bright sunny spot out of the wind. Dig a hole roughly the same size as the current flowerpot. If transplanting more than one, make sure you allow at least 50cms space between each plant.
Water the plant well before transplanting as this will ensure that the soil ball doesn’t fall apart. Carefully tease out of the pot, and place immediately into the hole that you have prepared.
As your sunflower continues to grow, it will need some help to support the stem. Sink a bamboo cane close to the plant, and loosely tie the plant’s stem to the cane using strips of cut up old tights. Not a good idea to use string or wire as there is a risk of cutting the stem.
Water regularly and protect from slugs, and place some slow release fertiliser around the base of the plant. Broken eggshells or gravel spread around the stems are both helpful natural deterrents.
Did you know that the tallest sunflower on record was 9.17 metres – that’s taller than five average height grown ups standing on each other’s shoulders!
The challenge is to find
* the tallest– the length of the stem from soil level, up to and including the sunflower head
* the shortest– the length of the stem from soil level, up to and including the sunflower head
* the biggest head – flower should be fully open, andmeasured as the diameter from outer petal tips; unopened buds will not be considered
* the smallest head– flower should be open, and measured as the diameter from outer petal tips; unopened buds will not be considered
* prettiest, * ugliest, * most colourful, * most unusualsunflowers and *wackiest photowill be determined at the judges’ discretion
Measurements should be taken on 1 September 2020 and emailed to valerie@auntieplanty.comas soon as possible, together with photographs.
Have fun – good luck
