How To Grow Sunflowers

In April, May and June is the perfect time to plant Sunflowers. Not only will there be no frost (hopefully) but it’s great to get the kids involved.  Our quick guide on how to grow sunflowers will show you they  are easy to grow and show relatively quick results, meaning the kids should stay interested.

There are many different varieties of sunflowers that you can grow. Our favourites.

• American Giant. These Sunflowers can grow up to around 4m in height!
• Teddy Bear A small sunflower with a puffed head.
• Big Smile Smaller than the giants, but keeping that traditional sunflower look .

We prefer to sow our sunflowers directly into the ground. Specifically around the end of April / May. Sowing around this time should see most variety of sunflower flower in August time. As long as they’re able to sunbathe and get the occasional water then it should all go to plan!

How to grow sunflowers – Tools and Materials

• Choose your variety of seeds, check how tall they might grow.
• Gardening Gloves.
• Trowel
• Rake
• Bamboo cane and string. If you’re growing some monster sunflowers, these will come in handy when the sunflower starts growing. Use the cane and string to support the height.

What to do when growing sunflowers

1. So sunflowers can be sown straight in to the ground. However, sunflowers are not fans of weeds. So ensure the soil is clear from weeds. We’d advise that after clearing the soil from signs of weeds would be to lay a high grade weed control fabric over the soil (leaving a hole for the sunflowers obviously).
2. Rake the soil until the texture is fine and crumbly.
3. Make some holes for the seeds. Holes should be around 12mm deep. Ensure you leave space between each seed and hole (around 10cm).
4. Place the seeds in the holes and cover with soil and water.

Sunflower growing tips

• Be aware of slugs and snails. They love new flower shoots. We’ve found cutting the top off of a plastic bottle and placing it over new shoots should help against the slugs and snails.
• If you’re growing large sunflowers, once their taller than you, ensure you place a cane beside it and loosely tie with string for support.