Tips for Planting Sunflower Seeds

Reaching tall to the sky, sunflowers are a hopeful reminder of all things bright and beautiful in the world. With planting season coming soon, it’s time to explore the numerous choices (sizes, shapes, colors & other features) of our beloved sunflower.

Everybody loves them, and there is nothing easier to grow. That’s why Eden Brothers has over 40 different sunflower choices. A big favorite is Mammoth Gray-Stripe and mammoth it is! This is the old barnyard sunflower that rockets up to 10 or 12 feet in no time in almost any soil with lots of sun. The flowers are up to a foot in diameter and filled with seeds. These are the seeds that are in edible snacks and also in bird seed. In fact the seed heads become automatic bird feeders once the plant dies.

Other sunflowers are not quite so tall, topping out at only four to six feet, and make really beautiful options for the back of a garden. The names are Domino and Henry Wilde.

But wait, not all sunflowers are yellow, here is Autumn Beauty, which opens to a range of bi-colors (we have an organic version too), and there are others that are pure red and even sunset orange.

Don’t want tall ones? Don’t worry, choose one of the dwarfs like Sunspot for big flowers on small plants, only two feet tall, with 8- to 10-inch flowers.

Then there are the bush forming sunflowers, such as the basic wild flower that started it all. “Wild” sunflower is the state flower of Kansas and forms a blooming bush just three feet tall.

Maximillian Sunflower (perennial)

We have over 40 choices in sunflower seeds and they’re all annuals except for one—the beautiful Maximilian sunflower is a perennial. It’s tall, and it spreads rapidly so give it space. It grows up to eight feet with spikes of beautiful yellow blooms.

Can’t decide? Then choose our Sunny Sunflower mix, with 10 favorites featuring the best of the best.

How to grow them? There is nothing to do it, just pick a sunny spot with good soil and plant any of our sunflower seeds where you want them to grow. Bury them about a half an inch, water well and watch them zoom up out of the soil and remember whether you want to plant just a patch or a whole acre, all of our seeds are available by the packet or by the pound.

Reach for the sun!