Sunflower help!

16 years ago

I worked soooooooooooooooo hard on my sunflowers...I started them late April and grew them in the house until the end of May! I know, they say not to try to transplant sunflowers, just direct sow them, but I was eager to try and see what happened! So, I planted Giant Mammoth sunflowers and then some shorter variety with multiple heads per stem -Pinache???! My mammoth ones were right next to my fence -6 foot- and got about 8 feet tall and the DAY before they fully opened, squirrels ate the heads off two of them! The Pinache ones are opening right now!!!! I have 2 Mammoth that I had direct sown that are only like 5 feet right now but I am sure those will be goners too!

Here is my question! If I plant 3 more varieties right now, Mexican sunflowers, Velvet queen and Evening sun....and just drop the seeds into the soil of the gardens, not near my fence, will they still bloom this year???

Anyone....??? PLEASE help! These are my favoite flowers and I am sooooooooooooooooooooo ticked, I can't even bring myself to cut the empty stocks down yet! The stems were like 3-4" in diameter!

Anyone have experience planting sunflowers the last week in June for our zone 4??? They would be in full sun!!

Thanks sooooooooooooooooo much-

Becca

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Comments (2)

leaveswave
16 years ago
What a disappointment of anticipated pleasure!

I haven't planted them that late myself, but check the package for how many days until germination, or maybe you remember.

You grew them inside for about a month and outside for about a month and they were about to bloom. The heat of summer might speed that up a bit, esp. if you keep them watered. So you know it takes about 2 months for flowers.

Sunflowers will grow until frost kills them, probably sometime in Oct. Since that is 3 months away, you have a chance to see them flower.

I'm just wondering, how are you going to try to protect them from the squirrels this time?
rdubow
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks for the response! I was thinking the same thing in my head and looked all over the internet for other zone 4ers who had experience with them and found nothing!

As for squirrel protection.....plant them inside of the fence in my garden full of perennials! When they stand over 5 feet tall a squirrel can't get them! I lost only the three that were at fence level....well....two of them were taller but with a good stretch a squirrel could get them, obviously. I randomly planted about 12 more in the perennial garden and am just hoping they dont shade out other flowers! I did not clump them, I just put in two seeds no more than 6-10 feet from eachother "randomly" throughout the full sun area!

I even was hasty and got a few more seeds today at Menards....Mexican sunflower seeds and some Goblin Guillardia! Do you know if those will bloom this summer?

The sunflowers say......10-14 days to germinate..but I wish packages said "bloom time"! The Guillardia says 14-21 days too! I got one Guillardia plant from my parents house about two weeks ago and am addicted! It just keeps getting more blooms!!! I LOVE REBLOOMING perennials! Any other rebloomers you suggest?????? I have Ox Eye Daisy's (I hate them! They spread like fire!), and ummm.....lots of coneflowers.....and as far as REbloomers I need more! My stargazers are about to open, iris's and peonies are done!

Thanks for the reassurance that my thinking about timing was right! I appretiate it huge! I looked like 5 times for a response today~~

Becca
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