Are sunflowers annuals or perennials? 2. How do you prepare seeds for re-planting?
Hardiness Zone: 7b
Lisa from Athens, AL
Lisa,
Sunflowers are easy-to-grow annuals. Replanting them from this year's crop doesn't require any special preparation. To harvest seeds for planting next year, you can either lop off the mature seed heads and bring them indoors for drying, or cover them with cheesecloth or paper bags while they are still on the stem to collect the seeds as they fall. As long as you protect them from squirrels and birds, it's best to let them remain in the garden for as long as possible. There will be several indicators that the seeds have reached maturity. The backs of the flower heads will turn start to dry and turn brown, the flower petals will wilt and fall, and with the exception of the inner most seeds (they usually remain somewhat smaller) the seeds will appear full and plump.
Ellen
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Did you try a google search ? Most questions like this are fairly easy to answer once you explore a couple of the voluminous links you'll find via google. Best wishes.
Sunflowers are annuals. I just throw the seed where I want them to grow, cover with a little dirt and you are good to go....as long as the squirrels leave them alone. Sometimes birds will drop seeds and one will grow, sometimes I leave it where it is or sometimes I move it.
:) I have no idea about the sunflowers, but wanted to say hi from a fellow ThriftyFun Lover from Alabama.
Good Luck w/your flowers.
i find using old milk jugs to be the best way to grow the number you want to grow with out over doing it unless you have the space for them just cut off the tops of old milk jugs an place some dirt on the bottom about 1'' deep and place 13=16 seed's when they're about 4'' high fill them up with water an make a soup out of the dirt an yank them out of the planter an untangle the roots if there stuck to each other. if you can't plant them to together and the healthier one will kill of the weaker one as they grow or they both will just be sure you add some of the wet dirt to the hole you put them in when you plant them outside so they have some water to help them out and place a half cup of sugar around them to act as a plant food and cover the dirt around them w/ grass clippings and let them do the rest.
I just love sunflowers; and since I started feeding the birds sunflower seeds in their feeders, I haven't had to plant any seeds anywhere because the birds do it for me! I leave the plant in the fall and it dries naturally and the birds pick at it all winter and they plant the next years' plants.
I just bought a new Sunflower plant at Wal-mart. It is a short version about 2 feet tall bushy with a head flower of about 3 inches. There are three visable, minus 1 something bite off the head flower, no where to be found. There was nothing telling about this flower in the plant when bought. I asked the person attending the flower area, and she didn't know much about it.
Thank you for this information. My son, Danny, passed away this year. He had planted a few sunflowers along his pole barn. I can now try to save
the seeds for his children to plant a few every year.
Thank you so much.
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