I usually just grow the regular ole yellow sunflowers, mainly for the birds, and for certain butterflies that use them as a host plant. They do reseed for me, but if my mower man gets to them before I can mark them out on the lawn, they usually get mowed.....wah!

I have planted some of the other prettier colors, like the the dark burgandy, rust, white, and pale yellow, but have never gotten them to grow for me for some odd reason. I got a packet from someone a few years back just marked yellow and red sunflowers. They were the old standby yellow but not the humongous grey-striped ones, and they came up fine, but the red did not. Is there a trick to them? I don't know. I do know that about mid-summer they start to get ratty looking and the flower heads begin to go to seed. I let them do that and the finches and other birds love to eat them and perch on the tall stalks.

That's about all I can contribute on the subject. The seeds are not hard to find, though.

Susan

Here's a few of my faves by season:

Spring: Italian White, Moonwalker, Apricot Twist, Jade, and Lemon Queen

Summer: Sonja, Soraya, Golden Sungold and any of the others that have that traditional golden-yellow color

Fall: Earthwalker, Evening Sun, Moulin Rouge, Velvet Queen, The Joker, Ring of Fire and Ruby Moon.

I like to plant the dwarf ones in one of the mixed borders that surrounds the veggie garden, and usually use Sunspot or Teddy Bear for that purpose. Most of the dwarf ones I've planted get surprisingly wide considering their height. Sometimes I plant a row of dwarf sunflowers as a border around a bed of veggies. (I always mix flowers into my veggie beds.)

For very tall sunflowers that I use to make the walls of a sunflower house (picture a kids' playhouse with living walls of sunflowers and a roof of morning glories) I normally plant American Giants or Kong although I am sure Mammoth or Greystripe would work as well.

We have lots of the native sunflowers in the pastures and in the dogyard, so I tend to plant the ornamental ones in my flower beds.

If you want to grow some of the pollenless ones for cutting, I like Chianti, Sunrich Gold and Sunrich Yellow. They don't leave little 'puddles' of pollen on you tabletop or countertop beneath the vase like the regular sunflowers do.

If you want to grow a mix of several different types, there are some blends available, including Solar Babies for a dwarf mix and Van Gogh Mix or Fantasia Mix for a mix in shades from pale yellow to golden yellow to red. Ruby Moon is a mix with only the various shades of red sunflowers.

I also plant a lot of Tithonias which are Mexican Sunflowers (but not true sunflowers) with my other sunflowers, and I like all of the commonly sold tithonias--Torch, Goldfinger, Fiesta del Sol, etc.

Susan, I don't know why the red ones didn't come up for you. I've never had trouble with them and the red ones are the ones that visitors comment on the most. They also seem to tolerate drought exceptionally well in my garden.

Dawn

Mary, those are about the only sunflowers I have been able to grow - the ones that fall to the ground from the bird feeders. And then there's so many of them compacted into one area, that they soon die. Maybe I should thin them out and hope for the best.

I think the birds will eat the seeds of the ornamentals, too, if you leave the heads to dry on the plants. My finches really went after the yellow ones I planted. They are also a host plant for the Silvery Checkerspot and Bordered Patch butterflies. If you see a group of tiny black caterpillars on the back of the leaves, that leave a windowpane effect as they eat, they are one of these two butterflies.

I know what you mean by limited room, and sunflowers do take up some space.

Susan

I've never noticed much, if any, pollen puddling on the table underneath a bouquet of Teddy Bear sunflowers although it isn't a pollen-free type. One of the things I like about Teddy Bear is that the "fluffy" looking petals go almost to the very center of the flower head and there isn't a large round flat disc in the center of the flower. That might be why there seems to be little pollen. However, I know pollen is there because Teddy Bear does set seed.

Susan, I don't know if sunflower pollen is a problem for folks who suffer from allergies. I've never heard of it being a serious allergen, but you never know.

The pollenless sunflowers were developed for the cut-flower industry about, I guess, a decade back....or maybe 15 or more years back. It seems like they've been around quite a while now.

Florists and their customers often prefer pollenless flowers because they are not messy. Sunflowers have become very popular in flower arrangements used for banquets, weddings, etc. and the pollenless ones don't make a mess of the tablecloths by dropping pollen everywhere.

Dawn

We have the weedy bird feeder types but I love the ornamentals too.

I'm making a new area to plant them this year because they are getting squeezed out of the main veggie garden....it is definitely a space issue. I can't keep planting more and more and more of everything in the same amount of space!

Good luck with your ornamental sunflowers,

Dawn

Good luck and let us know how your SFs do in the garden.

Susan

Every year I have a huge influx of little black and orange caterpillars that strip the sunflowers bare of their foliage. They tend to bother the ornamental ones more than the native ones, so I tend to flick them off the foliage of the ornamental ones into a cup and then dump them on the ground under native/wild/birdfeeder sunflowers.

Susan probably can tell you the name of the butterflies these orange and black cats eventually become. I think they are orange and I know she told me years ago what they are called, but I don't remember what they are.

Dawn

Nevertheless, they are always welcome in my yard.

Maryl, your sunflowers are gorgeous! Just keep in mind that when we feed the caterpillars we are rewarded with the presence of the adult butterflies in the garden, and they are so much fun to have.

Susan