Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
brianny_5

sunflowers

Brian NY - 5
23 years ago

Does anyone on here do any work with sunflower hybridizing? I was just wondering, why there has never been a giant sized red sunflower? All giant sunflowers (skyscraper, russian giant, paul bunyon hybrid, mammoth russian, titan, giant yellow, giant single, etc.)are yellow and single headed, with the exception of the multi-headed kong hybrid (and I read that Sunzilla can be either multi or single headed). There are lots of red sunflowers, but all are multi-headed and medium sized (velvet queen, red sun, evening sun, crimson thriller, prado red, etc.)


I would like to see a giant red sunflower!

I've bought every giant sunflower variety that I could find and every red variety I could find. Hopefully something good will come of this.

Comments (11)

  • John - 6b/7a NJ
    23 years ago

    Hi Brian,

    I really like your idea for a giant sized red sunflower! Sounds like you have created a good gene pool to work with towards this goal. If you are successful, I imagine it will take generations of crosses to stabilize this hybrid until it breeds true from seed. An ambitious project, but I think the end result would be very popular. Good luck!

    John

  • Brian NY - 5
    Original Author
    23 years ago

    If I can make a giant red sunflower then I'm going to need a catchy name for it. They always have catchy names for sunflowers. I could name it something like Giant Red, Mammoth Red, or Big Red. ...Hrmmm? What should I call it?

  • John - 6b/7a NJ
    23 years ago

    Unfortunately the best name of all is not only taken, but has been wasted: 'VALENTINE'. It is not even red. How about 'Jolly Red Giant'?

    Did a little more research, and was surprised to note that the Sunflower, Helianthus annus, is in the Aster family (Asteraceae). The author lists many members of this family because of "all the interesting wide cross possibilities".

    There is nothing further on this, but among the plants listed are Dahlias! Would a wide cross between Helianthus and Dahlia be possible? There are certainly some huge dark red Dahlias. And then if the cross could be propagated by tubers...

    John

  • jeff k - 6a
    23 years ago

    Most hybridizing in this area ( I believe) is one
    sided ,what I mean is that they have been either crossing for size or color .

  • superbreeder 6
    22 years ago

    LET ME KNOW how you make out I am looking for gian heads to crossbreed with. and all posssible colors petal types . lets swap seeds next fall I once had ten diffferent colors but most were small and mice ate them.

  • tennispro
    19 years ago

    helpful hints tips on growing tall sunflowers, and giant heads

  • farmfreedom
    17 years ago

    YOU CAN GET "FREE" SEEDS including sun flower seeds from the U.S. government by agreeing to fill out an evaluation of each seed requested at the end of the harvesting season . check out www.ars-grin.gov this includes rare colrs like "purple" good luck !

  • robert567
    5 years ago

    How the heck did Brian in NY know about these sunflower hybrids way back in 1970? How did Gardenweb work back then? Did they mail in punch cards? Or use carrier pigeons?

  • zen_man
    5 years ago
    last modified: 5 years ago

    " How the heck did Brian in NY know about these sunflower hybrids way back in 1970? "

    His original post was in 2001. Things were a bit more advanced by then. That January 12, 1970 date is an odd error in this forum.

  • robert567
    5 years ago

    NOW it says March 1, 2001. GardenWeb is messing wit me.