Yes Lori, I think it is Helianthus petiolaris, I took my wildflower book out to the garden to check out the leaves and I think the description fits. Although, I am terrible at identifying plants! Glen from Regina would know for sure.

Just love that Moonshine Ang, I mean Moonshadow ;) Does it glow at night?

tabardca, think of me please if you save any seed from your H. petiolaris ;) Btw, is that Salvia growing in front of it, nice combination!

Sharon

Sharon, another great thread!!! Everyones sunflowers are very pretty.....they always bring a smile to my face! :-)

Didn't get around to getting any planted this spring..I bought the seeds though.....so I hope they will be ok for next year. I have two volunteers from the bird feeder..but they haven't flowered yet.

Sierra

Everyones' sunflowers look great! They do help to brighten up the dreary days we have been having. Tabardca I would love to have some seed as well from your Helianthus petiolaris if you happen to save any. I love the sprawling habit of the plant.

Ang, your Velvet Queen reminds me of eyeshadow, it almost seems to shimmer.

Here is a picture of mine, don't ask what type it is as they are more of my found plants. :) I am hoping I get lots of ripe seed from them. At what stage do I collect the seeds/heads? I have never harvested sunflower seeds before and am not positive as to what I should do.

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Syreeta

Sharon, you are correct about the Salvia, that is Salvia victoria on the right and Veronica longifolia on the left.

I will be sure to save lots of seed from the Helianthus petiolaris. I can always visit the side of the highway as well. When I collected I took scissors and just cut off the whole head when they were all dried up.

Hi Sharon! Moonshine shines in the moonlight (say that 10x fast! LOL) and gets a little tipsy too (especially with all this extra liquid we've had). LOL Never mind me, I've been stuck inside too long. Now watch me start calling that one Moonshine from now on! LOL

Syreeta, that's funny, it does shimmer! I love the colour of your sunflower, it's a very pretty yellow.
That Helianthus petiolaris is very interesting. I've never seen a pink sunflower before!

Ang

Oh thank you tabardca, approximately how tall do they get?

I wintersowed Helianthus maximilianii Prairie Sunflower 3 years ago, so I'm crossing my fingers that this Fall they will finally make a show ;) Susan, is yours starting to bud yet?

Syreeta, very striking .....has kind of a orange hue to it.

Sierra, tsk, tsk, tsk, you get those SF seeds planted out for sure next year, yah hear ;)

Sharon

Finally uploaded some sunflower pics. All mine are the no-name bird-planded variety. One thing i've noticed lately is that the bees are really loving these, and just clinging to the flowers not moving. Some seem to have spent the night on them! Weird!

One with a bee:
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Another with a bee:
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One without a bee:
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The tallest one with some rudbeckia:
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Oh, these are all so beautiful. I didn't plant any sunflowers this year, but of all the ones I've tried, Earthwalker is still my favourite. Tabardca, we'll be driving the #1 south to Maple Creek next week - hopefully those sunflowers will still be in bloom, and I'm sure the dogs will need to stop for a pee break somewhere along that ditch, DH will want to take pictures, and hmmm, what shall I do?

Marcia, looks like you're gonna have some birdseed on your hands soon! LOL

Syreeta, about your question when to collect seeds, you will really see when the seeds start to develop shells and harden up. Marcia's 3rd pic looks about halfway there. The petals will turn brown/fall off and the seed head will be very full and the seeds crammed together.

Tabardca your Double Dandy isn't that ugly. If you like pink SFs you might try Ruby Eclipse, it is similar but with bigger petals and a smaller seed area.

Very nice Marcia!

Here is one taken today with a bee dusting pollen all over the petals.

That's pretty, Sharon - i need to plant some red ones again next year. My daughter and i planted some several years ago. I think they were "Prado Red" or something like that.

I don't think i've ever been able to collect seeds from sunflowers. They usually freeze or the birds must get them. Oh well, they'll plant more for me during the winter!

what would summer be without sunflowers?...I too had sunflowers pop up from under the bird feeder
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I had seeds left over from the last couple years so planted them in with the scarlet runner beans..I think this one is Star Burst Panache
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this one is either Velver Queen or Moulin Rouge
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---savona---

These 'Earthwalkers' get better and better as the weeks go by, they come in such a variation of reds, oranges and yellow tones, look so nice at this time of the year too. My favourite!

Anymore Sunflower photos that you'll like to share ;)

Sharon

Sharon, i wish i could have gotten a picture of the blue jay hanging off my biggest sunflower, eating the seeds! My son said he'd seen it a few times, but i only caught a glimpse the other day and by the time i got my camera, it was gone. No more seeds in that head either. None of the other sunflowers are big enough for a big bird - they'll have to wrastle them to the ground!

I'm a little late, but here are some of my sunflower pics. I grow giant sunflowers as a hobby. I'm 6'3" to give you an idea of how tall they are

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Here is a link that might be useful: my giant sunflower website

I guess I'm a few zones too warm for this forum. I saw the sunflowers and got a little nuts. :-)

Hey you're never too warm to visit the Far North! Those are some humungous sunflowers... wow!

Thanks! I was doing a search on sunflowers, and I saw all those sunflower pics; so I thought I would add mine, then I realized what forum I was in.

I guess that's why they call New Jersey the Garden State. :-)

I also like to grow giant maize, and something called English Vegetable Marrow, which is similar to zucchini, but much bigger. Here are some pics. They were either taken in NY, NJ, or PA (I tend three gardens - thus the reason for my handle - and I grew up where NY/NJ/PA connect)

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WOW! Those are some REALLY BIG sunflowers and CORN. Holy Moly! What is in your soil! WOW! Thanks for sharing those pictures....amazing!

Wow !!! Unreal.... Anyone want to seed me some seeds? My sunflowers & corn were a total failure this year.. Too much moisture & not enough sun..

For sure WOW, those are some tall Sunflowers you have there Brian, same with the Amaranthus in your first photo!

Janice, I went out today to see if I could collect you some seed, however the birds beat me to it.

Willam Dam Seeds have a good selection of hybrids ;)

Sharon

Actually, there is a picture of a 10 ft. tall Amaranth next to the corn in the nearly exact pictures with my wife in the one and myself in the other. I'm currently trying to breed this red amaranth to produce giant plants. Every year, I save any plants over 8 ft. or that have giant stems.

You think those amaranth are big, then take a look at the stems on these Amaranth plants that I grew last year:

Sheesh. Are you growing them for pulp?? :>

All very nice....
back to Sunflowers, here are some, I grow every Year,
Huge Popies on both side of the row
Konrad

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I saw this thread awhile back and wanted to share my heart shaped sunflower. So... I finally got around to figuring out how to post a pic, thanks to the help of Far North Gardeners! Here it is...(2005 was the first year that I planted sunflowers, so this was especially special!)

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Tootsie
PS: I only planted birdseed last year, but this year I've got 'Soraya' to plant. Can't wait. How early can they be sown?
PSS: Laurie, Image Resizer from microsoft power tools was simple and does the trick. Thanks for the tip!

Hi Sunflower growers--I have been growing many different varieties of Sunflowers for several years, and make up bouquets of them for sale at Farmers Market. They sell like hotcakes, and I never seem to have enough. Florists also purchase from me. They self seed in the garden, and no the roots on mine are very shallow--they do not go down to China. A good wind could topple them quite easily. They are beautiful, and are a good long lasting cut flower flower. Do try some! Marg.

I am a bit too far south for this forum too, but I love those pictures! keep them coming. I will post pictures some too after I get sunflowers.

I planted some bird seed this spring. They did ok, but got ants so was unable to save seeds. The worms got to them too.

Your pictures have encouraged me to plant different varieties. I love the photos.

Can anyone help me out with sunflower seeds?

I have a trade list. If you see something you would like I would sure love to trade.

I also have heirloom veggie seeds not on my trade list, that I could split packs with you if you do not see something on my list you could use.

I had some standing wine cup seeds, but I placed the mini pie tin I was gathering them in, on the grill while I took a look at the veggie garden. A big gust of wind blew them to the ground. I could not find a single seed. More standing wine cup seeds are drying on the plants now, so I will have more if you want some.

Mary

Here is a link that might be useful: My Trade List

Sunflowers are one of the primary reasons I started gardening. There is something so cheery about a row of sunflowers.

My favorite: lemon sunflower
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I have saved some seeds from autumn beauty.

The problem is I have no clue what color the seeds should be.

There are white ones, brown ones and black ones even some tan ones. I would think the white ones are not done yet. I want to trade these, but need to be sure I cull out the unviable ones.

Anyone know out there. If so please help me out.

Also what is the best way to separate seeds from chaff for sunflowers? I am so unfamiliar with all the tricks.

I love all these pictures. It prompted me to plant some sunflowers this year. Thanks guys.

Mary

Hi Mary, welcome to our forum even though you are from down south :0)

You can tell sunflower seeds are ready because the squirrels have stolen them. LOL just kidding. But when the petals fall off, and the seed head starts to bulge in the middle and the seeds come away from each other, they are ripening. When they are ripe you should be able to pick them out fairly easily, and they will have a hard smooth shell just like sunflower seeds you buy to eat. I haven't noticed chaff sticking to the seeds, unless you mean the shells, in which case you just plant them with the shells on.

As far as trading, it is technically illegal for us to mail you seeds from Canada. Lots of people do it anyway, but you might have a harder time getting away with it when you are trading large seeds like sunflowers. You might want to do a search on the USA seed trade forum, if nobody from here offers. Sorry bout that.

I was not wanting to trade seed, I just need advice on which seeds to toss out. Thanks for all your advice. I might be jumping hte gun on harvesting. I have to beat the worms and ants here.

I am kinda new . this is a few sunflower piks from last year hope to meet some new sunflower growers

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Welcome gianteverything!

Holy smokes, those are some GIANT SF's! Where do you garden?

Sharon

As 20 inches of snow is falling and the wind is blasting, what fun to see pics of sunflowers and learn their names! My community garden sprouted 6-7 different kinds of volunteers last year and I let them all grow. Each very different from the next. I liked the one I vaguely think of as Mexican sunflower (bi-color) the best. The biggest one ended up having many branches of flowers. Had to whack it down in late August tho ... it was shading the tomatoes.

Wow! And I thought my sunflowers were big. I have a problem though. I hope someone can help.

I planted Mamouth Sunflowers. After opening and the bees going to town on them they started drooping. Their heads hanging way down.

Is that normal? This is my first venture with sunflowers and they are so beautiful I don't want them to fail. Do they just die?

Please help?

Sunflowers with large heavy heads do start to droop like that. Nothing to do with the bees or anything - the head is just too heavy for the stem to support properly. This isn't killing them - it's perfectly normal. :)

I hope someone is still watching this thread! I planted one of the larger varieties of sunflowers (Mammoth, I think), and while they didn't get huge, one has a nice sized head. There are also knobby things forming at the junctures of the stalk and leaves on the upper part of the stalk. Are these other flower heads starting to form? I thought sunflowers only had one bloom per stalk. Thanks for any info!

Yes, these could be the start of other stalks, some sunflowers do this..

Konrad

Yes, these could be the start of other stalks, some sunflowers do this..

Konrad

shoot...sorry, for some reason I klicked the post button twice, and for some reason it got posted without rejecting it??

Konrad

So what do you do with the head when it starts to droop? Mine is completely looking at the ground. Also, my daughter brought these home from preschool. I'm glad I planted them because the 2 plants are doing great, but I have no idea what to do next. I'm more of a daylilly sort of girl, perenial that doesn't need much care!

I usually let them be, seeds are appreciate by many birds, in spring I clean up.

Konrad

We made room for a few "Mammoth" sunflowers.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sunflower

I'm so used to "liking" on facebook that I was looking for the like button. lol.

Anyways, I like Dave!

I planted a few hybrids this year, but mostly the birds did the work.

Still getting the hang of this. This post will work better, I think.
I notice my Mammoth sunflowers are healthier than the Lemon Queen I grew in the same area. Much less mildew, so far.

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Everybodies sunflowers are just gorgeous! I don't think I can grow them here in south central Alaska. Boo hoo!

Here's a sunflower question. A friend just told me today that she had planted some sunflowers and they still don't have flowers on them and she was wondering why. She said she planted them "early enough", probably May or June. Any idea why they never got flowers?

I know this is a bit old but love it. We collected a few million lol seeds last yr and have been steadily planting this yr. they make a person so happy

And so do I! I planted sunflowers for the first time this past spring. I just bought seed packets everywhere I saw them , so had sunflowers from 12" to 12', lemon, orange, red, and even a couple of black ones! They made the side yard look so bright and cheerful, I'm going to do it again in 2015! I just need to find a way to keep the seedheads on the stalks till the birds have had their fill - I ended up cutting some and putting just the heads on a privet hedge next to my driveway. The cardinals went crazy for them - I LOVE SUNFLOWERS!!!