Sunflower (plant)

Kids love me, y’know. It’s funny really because little ‘uns are usually frightened of anything that towers above them but even those who’ve never met me before fall instantly in love. Dicky birds are pretty keen, too. I love the way children marvel at the world around them, looking at simple things as if they’ve been created by some kind of miracle. I think that’s why they love me so much. They can actually watch the miracle happen. Studying a plant as it grows from a tiny seed to a flowering plant is a truly fascinating experience and being as big as I am, everything appears to happen as if ... more

Spring must be on its way as my seeds have arrived!! One of the annuals I always grow are Sunflowers (Helianthus). Once upon a time there was only one variety – come on now you all know what I’m talking about, those great big tall yellow flowers the size of dinner plates, which grew half way up the side of the house when you were a kid. Well now there are lots more varieties that vary in size from around 12 inches tall to those giants of 13 feet or more. Also there are those that bear multi heads and are ideal for cutting and now there are lots of variations in colour, ranging from that bright ... more

Sunflowers are one of the easiest things to grow from a seed and they are beautiful when the flowers open out because the flowers look so massive on the tall stalk and it looks like magic that the plant can hold itself up right. You buy a packet of 10 or 20 seeds and that costs about £2 and if you look after them you will get most of them growing and hardly any of the seeds die off. I always use compost from the shop and I sometimes buy the proper seed compost but not always and they always come through whatever one I use. There's a shop by me that sells the big bags of compost dirt cheap so I ... more

I am not a good gardener at all and despite my best efforts I just cannot enjoy gardening at all even though I like having lovely lillies and tulips in my garden and home grown veg during the summer months. More often than not I end up giving the seeds to my mum and she cultivates them and I just pop the plants in the ground when they're ready. This year however I wanted to do something with my son that was easy and that he could see growing, he loved doing the potatoes last year but they can't be seen and so instead I decided to go for sunflowers as they are generally an easy and hardy plant ... more

Sunflowers Vincent van Gogh painted his sunflower pictures in 1888. There are many other paintings of sunflowers they are such a beautiful flower, big and bright. Sunflowers are very easy to grow. They are perfect for a first flower for a child to grow. So do you know what a sunflower is? A sunflower, Latin name Helianthus annuus belonging to the daisy family. It is an annual a yellow flower hence the name sun. The centre has often a contrasting brown colour this centre develops into seeds. The basic sunflower is a simple single flower but there are also double flowers. The basic one is just ... more