Growing Sunflowers

[Dave Lehnert]

Any tips on growing sunflowers?
Variety best to plant, type of soil etc..............

[John K Jordan]

Any tips on growing sunflowers?
Variety best to plant, type of soil etc..............

I usually plant several types down the edge of my garden. I don't know the names but some have the grey striped seeds and some the smaller black seeds. I often just use sunflower seeds I bought to feed the birds in the winter.

I do enrich the soil a bit with composted hay and llama manure but I've never tested the soil. They seem to grown well without much care. I do water during dry spells.

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JKJ

[John K Jordan]

I forgot to mention, besides the color I grow sunflowers for the birds and the bees. Huge numbers of little goldfinchhes feed on the ripe seeds.

When the flowers are growing they are great bee attractors. I've spent hours photographing bees on flowers and this was one of my best at a sunflower - I caught a honeybee coming in for a landing, wings buzzing fast so they are almost invisible. Somehow I got the focus AND the timing right - a rarity! That day I also got about 100 boring shots of bees crawling around on the flowers.

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[Dave Lehnert]

I forgot to mention, besides the color I grow sunflowers for the birds and the bees. Huge numbers of little goldfinchhes feed on the ripe seeds.

When the flowers are growing they are great bee attractors. I've spent hours photographing bees on flowers and this was one of my best at a sunflower - I caught a honeybee coming in for a landing, wings buzzing fast so they are almost invisible. Somehow I got the focus AND the timing right - a rarity! That day I also got about 100 boring shots of bees crawling around on the flowers.

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GREAT photo. Thanks for sharing

[Yonak Hawkins]

GREAT photo.

That's for sure.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Love the pic John!

Sunflowers come in either oil or confectionery varieties. Feeding critters, oil. Feeding yourself, confection. I've grown them on a farm for years. Fun fact, the dust that is created by combining them is extremely flammable.

[Frederick Skelly]

Love that pic, John!

[Nicholas Lawrence]

I just planted a dozen or so. Looking forward to see what happens. In the wife’s “bee garden” so glad to hear the bees like them.

[Larry Frank]

I plant a variety of them both mammoth and smaller ones. I also have been planting Mexican Sunflowers which attract Monarch butterflies.

[Lee Schierer]

Any tips on growing sunflowers?
Variety best to plant, type of soil etc..............

If you plan on eating them plant the striped variety. Be aware that the birds wil eat the ripe ones right off the heads before the entire head matures, so if you are going to eat them cover the heads with cheese cloth to keep the birds out. If you are planning on feeding the birds, either variety will work. Plant them where the get lots of sun and the soil
l drains..

[Jim Koepke]

Nice bee picture. Back in the days of KodaChrome many of my hours were spent photographing bees on flowers. Not sure any of mine is as good as that image.

jtk

[John K Jordan]

Nice bee picture. Back in the days of KodaChrome many of my hours were spent photographing bees on flowers. Not sure any of mine is as good as that image.
jtk

Yikes, perhaps National Geographic as able to afford enough film and processing to shoot bees back then, I sure wasn't. We are SO spoiled with good digital cameras these day.

I think I may have posted some of these bee photos before, but if not... I shot over 400 photos over two days to get six good macro closeup pictures of bees on our Golden Rain Tree. The fortunate thing was the tree was next to the deck so I could get up close without standing on a ladder. The challenging things: the bees were moving, the fronds were moving in the breeze, and then there was me with wobbling hand-held shots. Getting the focus, exposure, framing and background all on the useful side was probably close to a miracle. The depth of field with the macro focusing is so narrow I couldn't even get an entire bee in focus in a frame - stop way down for depth of field and the shutter speed started to be a problem, even at high ASA/ISO on the bright day.

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The Golden Rain tree, BTW, is an amazing bee attractor for about 1 month in June/July around here. I estimated over 2000 bees of at least seven different types in the tree from before sunup until almost dark. We have two of these trees and a neighbor down the street has another.

Thanks to those who commented on the other photo. Sorry if these bee photos seem like a thread hijack but I've discovered that people who like flowers generally like honeybees too!

JKJ

[Steve Peterson]

Great photos. The best advice I have for growing them is to plant 2 rows so you can tie the heads together when they get big. This creates an arch to prevent the wind from blowing the plants over.

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

One of the most impressive sights in rural areas, is coming over a hill to see a 20 acre field of blooming sunflowers. Few farmers here grow them. So they are a rare sight.

[Rich Enders]

One season we grew sunflowers in Southern California. They grew easily, but they (and the surrounding area) were covered with billions of white flies. That ended that.