I was reminiscing with my teen son over his childhood memories. When I asked him what was his saddest memory, he said when I didn’t take care of his sunflower and marigold seedlings that he gave me from kindergarten and they died! Well, I’m determined to surprise him with a sunflower garden and pots of marigolds of all kinds this coming season. Got to mend that broken heart! Thanks for a great video.
So let me tell ya this..😍.yesterday I was riding through this neighborhood trying to find the main street and 😱rode up on this patch of tall sunflowers surrounding a stop sign..it was like they planted all around the stop sign it was beautiful...l I was like is this a stop sign or a lesson...It had me in this awkward mental space...😕..I was like now I just looked at this video and rolled up on this...now I need to try and pick the lucky scratchoff ticket..that would really be amazing..🎰💰..okay bye now...😊
My local squirrel, Polly, plants my sunflowers for me. And what's great is that she planned them in front of my kitchen window where the chickadees come to eat the seeds, so I get to bird watch. :-).
Had a sunflower one year came up very late in the season, never bloomed, didn't die off in winter (zone 9) and started growing again in spring. I think it was 10 ft tall when it finally bloomed. Really beautiful.
Just started growing mine late March and I’m excited. I’m also in zone 9 (a) and I’m hoping mine will come back next year. Thanks for your hopeful comment!
I planted sunflowers in July from seed and am also in zone 9. Your comment makes me feel hopeful that if I don’t get a flower in 2020 then Spring 2021 might be a showstopper in my garden.
My version of this video: put sunflower seeds from store in birdfeeder, have sunflowers show up randomly everywhere due to careless birds and crafty squirrels
I planted Mammoth Grey Stripe sunflowers from Ed Hume in 2010 and have not had to replant since then. The sunflowers were hybrids and the offspring from those seeds have been a mix of multi- and single-head flowers. The sunflowers start coming through the ground in late February or early March. Sometimes the snow has not completely melted and the temps are still rather cold. I leave the flowers up throughout the Spring, Summer, and Fall. I do not harvest the seeds for myself. I grow the sunflowers just for the pollinators and the birds. Quite a lot of seeds find their way into the ground and lay dormant under the snow and then begin the growth cycle all over again.
Will the plant fall over in the winter (snow -30C ... Alberta, Canada) or will it stay up as food for the birds? Not sure how soft the stalk gets over winter.
I just want to let you know, I've been watching your videos for YEARS! I finally have a property large enough to create a true insane gardening space and I've been working on it for the last 5 years... but your guides have been prolific. Thank you so much for being so giving of your time and knowledge.
Check out WILD sunflowers that have a ton of flowers (50+!).that stick out like a sore thumb. ALL sunflowers good for edible buds, microgreens, etc. Treat them as food for more than seeds!
It's super easy. Just allow the flower heads to dried out and the seeds to cure. Then, bend the flower head back slightly. Underneath the remnants of pollen will be the seeds you're looking for. You can chop the flower head off with a lopping shears, then hang it up to dry and cure. Just be mindful of opportunistic squirrels, raccoons and birds that may also have a keen interest in your seeds.
@Rick Borghuis That's a good idea. An old canvas bag or thicker plastic bag would work pretty well. Raccoons and squirrels will make short work of anything much flimsier.
We have a cute chubby chipmunk that occasionally scanvages birdseed beneath the bird feeder. My cat lays and watches him for hours. He apparently planted the sunflowers seeds in my wifes flower pots. We had sunflowers coming up in a dozen or more pots.
I’m so happy I ordered sunflower seeds from you. They are amazing. The mammoth tower over my backyard fence by a good 8 feet. I can’t believe the size of the blooms. And the autumn beauty color is just lovely.
Personally, no matter the seed, water every day first week, every other day 2nd week, third, every three day, etc... My consistent lack of watering is probably the cause of my seeds not growing. Pre-germinating is really helpful to accelerate seed growth too! Perfect for big seeds like the sunflower! I wish their blooms would last longer than 2-3 weeks! So cheerful and sunny!
My six year old daughter and I just planted our first sunflower seeds (indoors until temps warm up here) and this video made me even more excited to see how they turn out!
I grew the autumn beauty sunflowers from you this past summer (2019) and two of them grew to about 15-20 feet tall. I have never seen sunflowers that tall. My aunt looked tiny next to them, lol
I’m surprised you didn’t mention the difference between no pollen and pollen producing varieties, Lemon Queen, that draw many pollinating insects that use the pollen for food
I meant to add a thank you for all that you do. You are easy to follow and you explain it well. You know how it’s a lot to take in but you do it well. And I appreciate you and others like you. God bless you.
I grew mammoth russian sunflowers years ago and they were the talk of the neighborhood 🌻 This year I'm growing all different kinds to make a privacy/windbreak. I'm a Michigander but reside in OH atm (zone 6b) I usually start planting and or transplanting most flowers and veggies at the end of April-beginning of May. I'm so excited!!! 😌🌻🌻🌻
The bird seeds I put out last winter had sunflower seeds in them. There's now two sunflowers growing in my garden. Can't wait to learn how to grow them properly.
Our sunflowers are 10+ feet tall this year - they loved the hot warm sunny summer this year- thanks for the video Luke blessings and aloha from Holland MI
I have 6 I’m trying to grow for the first time. Wind knocked over two broke the stem but I googled how to repair followed directions so far they still alive!!!!
I grew a bunch last year and have a five gallon bucket of 8 different varieties. We have a huge wild gulch which I’m going to grow hundreds. I can’t wait.
I grow sunflowers for rabbit feed. I feed black oil sunflower seeds to pregnant and nursing rabbits to give them the fat and protein needed for lactation. Each breeding female will go through 10 to 15 lb of seeds per year.
Will Dwyer can I ask you something? I thought rabbits can’t eat seeds because their digestive system can’t process them? And can you feed the rabbits the greens from the sunflowers?
any chance we could get a video about harvesting seeds for next yr. also i was curious as to a type of sun flower that would be best to grow for sunflower seeds you can snack on?
Luke! First time tuning into your channel! I am a HUGE lover of sunflowers of any size or variety! Your energy was definitely full of ~SUN~!!!✨Love that!🌞 Gets me so excited here in mid March 2022 in the western MD mountains to start planning out my sunflower gardens! And I say gardens because I’m totally gonna go BIG this year! Plant me some sunflowers all over the place, LOL! Thank you for an inspiring and clarifying lesson on sunflowers! Xo👏🏼🥰✨🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻✨🕊🌞🌝💛💝
This channel has "grown" on be big time. Luke is a, cool, goofy dude (I say goofy because he's the only guy who would do a growing video wearing his grandmother's reading glasses) but I like his style of growing and the way he teaches gardening. Very helpful techniques and inexpensive ways to maintain your garden.
I used black oil sunflower seed for bait for destructive chipmonks/ground squirrels and then planted them after several days soaked in water. Ended up with a huge bed of sunflowers! Total unexpected but very welcome. Totally very very dense but they still grew anyway. I was really surprised how well they did and how fast they grew.
You have all the answers i needed to know as frist planning to plant Sun flowers. Here in Phx zone 13, i hope it survive since the heat here can get brutal. Thank you very informative!
Excellent video! So informative. Learned a lot. Now I can grow much better sunflowers thanks to you. Love your short videos. You easily keep our interest with short ones. You have the best ones!!!
I'm watching videos of how to grow sunflowers. Ive got all the things i need and im so excited! I just love your energy and personality. Thank you for posting this!😊😊😊
I grow the mammoth variety of sunflower and there were some that grew taller that my house and created huge flowers. I have since cut the flower and the stalk still stands. They even tried to create more tiny sunflowers subsequently but they are the size of a fist or smaller. The stalk hasn't died yet surprisingly
Hey Luke! I love your growing guides :) You've mentioned rosemary, lavender and sage briefly before, but would love to see a from-seed growing guide that includes pruning/maintenance, specifically for the lavender and rosemary. I grow mine in pots right now and am growing from seed, which I know you recommend, but information is lacking because almost everyone recommends growing these from cuttings.
Sunflowers: Beautiful, Not Hard to grow, It will give back what efforts you gave, and they are ADDICTIVE AF. It was the first time I had an aggressive desire to want such a pretty flower XD. Especially when I found out there were other Variations of it. LOL
Thank you very much, I bought some sunflower seeds from Bunnings a few weeks ago, thinking these won't work, but to my surprise they are growing well, I have always loved sunflowers, they are such a happy plant,I enjoyed your video very much....Greetings from Australia.
My biggest problem when growing sunflowers is that the young seedlings are often decimated by earwigs. Some of the best sunflowers I've had have come up from seeds dropped in the fall, whether from a previous sunflower or stray birdseed. Darn earwigs! On a positive noted, the earwigs didn't seem too bad here in northern Illinois this year.
I know this comment is 3 years old haha but I’ve just noticed something eating my young seedlings as well and learned diatomaceous earth kills ants and earwigs. Super cheap, just sprinkle it around in the soil to protect your seedling :)
Got some hisun seeds getting planted here in aus now. Im just gonna chuck em under the gum tree and hope for the best lol. Its survival of the fittest here.
Only one of my sunflowers survived the neighbourhood children who like to de-head them 😂 but it was beautiful I think I’ll grow the multi flower ones from now on!!! 🌻
I have the same varierty all from cuttings all over my yard.... the ones out further with less water is smaller. and the ones near my house are like 14 ft tall compared to the 5 ft tall ones...... so water does make a huge diff
I planted sunflowers last year. The squirrels dug up every seed but one. It was a Mammoth sunflower that grew 12 foot tall. The stem was 3 inches in diameter and It produced 20 small sunflower heads. We did not deadhead at all but had to cut it down when it finally froze in October.
Mine just kept growing and growing and growing... now they're like a small forest. 😳 I thought they were supposed to be medium-size sunflowers but they're all, like, ten ft tall plus. 🤯
I just want to Thank you, for your wealth of knowledge that you share. I've been watching all your videos and taking notes. You truly are a blessing. ✝️🌍❤️
it takes longer for the sunflower to die than you actually have it looking nice lol. But its totally worth i. you get to keep the seeds! Sunflowers are my favorite. they are the easiest thing i grew in my garden this summer.
I highly recommend the velvet queen sunflower from MIgardener. The flowers are tall, have a beautiful range of colors, and produce a LOT of flowers on each plant.
We have loved growing the mammoth sunflowers for shade for our soft body fruits, eating, giving chickens a treat, planting for next year, and putting some aside for winter chicken treats. The height of these beauties are worth the single head flower. We have been under attack this year from a lone squirrel so it has been interesting trying to beat it to the ripe seeds. We also grow the multi-flower headed ones for the wild birds so they leave the others and the garden alone.
Newbie here. The Internet has me spinning in circles about sunflowers. For every article, blog & video I've seen about companion planting, uses & composting sunflowers, I then come across the others saying sunflowers kill plants around them, are toxic & should never be composted. I trust your wisdom. What's the scoop?
some plants are more tolerant to the sunflower's chemical than others. some beans for example seem to tolerate sunflowers while others get stunned. and my theory is that native american descended plants are more tolerant to it because they've been forced into growing near sunflowers for thousands of years. while more recent cultivars that have been kinda watered down from their heritage like european grown beans are more delicate to it because they've been growing in europe in more monoculture setting with no sunflowers for a couple hundred years so maybe those genes eventually were selected away. in relation to composting im pretty sure the chemical sunflower makes breaks down in the decomposition process. but using sunflower leaves or stems as green mulch like people use grass clippings or leaves is harmful because they haven't had time to get broken down.
I am in love with burpee’s Evening mix, a sunflower grows at every node. Dark red and yellow tones. I love them. I grew them Kratky style in a 5 gallon buckets. I recommend growing it if you have sufficient nutrients.
This is the best informative video on sunflowers so far! Love it! Why won't you make more videos of sunflowers. Just like from seed to flower. And like along the way you also give tips and more info about sunflowers!!! 💗 Hope you could see this. Much love from 🇵🇭
Glad I found your channel! Good info, fun to watch. I get this excited too. It never gets old seeing plants spring into being. Especially flowers and crops. I love fresh oregano, basil, rosemary, jalapenos etc. Can't ever go back to dried spices. :) I am going to try sunflowers for the first time this year. Yay "resilient" plants.
Good stuff I needed to know... I’m going to try these in Phoenix soon. Can’t find a video of anyone talking about sunflowers in Phoenix. I will have to track my progress.
Great Video. I've recently gained a new appreciation for this Beautiful flower. We actually feed all our local Native Parrots with the seeds, all of a sudden we have had sunflower plants popping up everywhere, love them now. Going to dedicate a whole flower bed to them soon. Uber Cute Video & Uber cute Presenter ; )
Thank you another great video. My friend keeps the seeds and feeds the birds in the winter, I was thinking wouldn't it be great if all gardeners kept seeds and fed the birds through winter x
I just watched the video Luke made on July 1st, 2020 about "how to grow giant sunflower heads" and I think he may change what he said about fertilizing sunflowers (that you only need to focus on "nitrogen"). You don't want to just focus on nitrogen if you want big giant flower heads (then you need to focus on add potassium during flowering). Plus you need some phosphorus for root growth during early stages of growth and pre-flowering.
I bought the Sunspot Dwarf Sunflower thinking it would be shorter, they're huge! Lol. But some have 1 flower and others have a few buds. I wonder if they vary or if the envelope had a mix. Second year gardener. First time sunflowers. So easy. Plant and let it be.
Hi Luke, thanks for the sunflower info. I’m growing them in front yard of a brownstone in Brooklyn. Ever try growing sun chokes (also known as Jerusalem artichokes)? I’m trying to grow those in small 10” buckets...
Thanks Luke, Hey boy fantastic vid, In Australia spring so I thought I would use a sunflower shielding some of my afternoon sun on my garden but don't know much about of the flower much, my rainbow lorikeets love that seed, you are a amazing teacher mate.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us - I am grateful. Regarding sunflowers, which sunflower is best to plant to harvest/press for oil and when to press? If you hang them to "dry" can you still press for oil from them?
I love to grow sunflowers every year, in the garden and have two fields dedicated to sunflowers. People like to come to worship the sunflower fields...
I composted some sunflowers after I removed all the seeds (at least I thought I did) thr next year I put the compost in the garden and in a couple weeks I had a huge patch of sunflowers growing right where I put the compost.
I use coffee grind and apparently it has a lot of nitrogen. They are growing very tall within a week time. Actually used it to expell snails first But now I’ll just add some over time.
Before anything else, I need to stress this one important step: Take care of any rodent problem you may have. Sunflower seeds and sprouts attract rodent pests like nobody's business. This year I had rodents ripping out my sunflower seedlings by the hundreds. It wasn't until I found and fumigated the burrow that my sunflowers finally grew.
