Hello guys,
today I will show you my progress with Sunflowers. I love sunflowers and for some reason they remind me childhood summers. In old days you had 1 variety of Sunflower and that was it. Today if you visit your local shop or nurseries you have a plenty of varieties to choose from, big flowers, small flowers, tall or short even choice from different colors. Me personally think that Sunflowers should be always yellow but I guess that's only my personal preference. Sun flowers are also very good for pollinators, as many of you probably know honey bees, bumble bees are disappearing and we need to protect them. Specially in suburban areas you should always plant some flowers good for pollinators, don't use dangerous chemicals that could harm bees. But I will do another blog about bees soon. Right lets go back to Sunflowers.
1) Have a look around your local shops for seeds, I got mine from Wilko but you can get them from any local shop selling gardening tools and plants. Before you purchase check max high of grow and make sure you purchase pollinators friendly variety. See picture above and check left bottom corner and spot little bee symbol that means pollinators friendly.
2) Start your seeds in smaller container like picture above. Follow instruction on back of the packet how to sow you Sunflowers. In my case packet said sow 2 seeds together 45cm apart. Because I want to grow my flowers in container I started them in small container from the supermarket peaches. Seeds will germinate within 14 to 21 days. I would recommend leave your container in greenhouse or windowsill does the job. once you got seedlings with true leaves like me on picture above they are ready to be transplanted.
3) You will need a good size pot depend of how many Sunflowers you want to fit in and also depend on variety. Pot should have enough holes for good drainage.
4) Next you need a good potting soil ideally with add John Innes but it is not essential. If you produce your own compost that's the best.
5) Fill 3/4 of planter with compost, press down and make flat surface. Now you have to think how you going to plant seedlings, again depend which variety you purchase read a packet and check information regarding spacing of your seedlings.
6) Carefully separate your seedlings from each other, make sure that you do not damage roots and hold
your and handle seedlings carefully. See picture above, never hold your seedlings by the stem as you can damage little plants. Make a holes big enough to fit roots nicely place seedling in hole and gently press down.
7) Once you transplanted all seedlings place your planter in to half shade until your seedlings got stronger and get used to full sun, keep soil moist but not soaking wet and be prepare to enjoy nice flowers in couple month time. My Sunflowers should grow only 90cm tall and I think that it is ideal for pots and bright up your patio, garden or balcony. I will keep you updated if I was successful and manage to get some flovers.
Also after bloom once flowers died you can collect seeds and share your sunflowers with family and friends but this is subject for my next blog.
And how much I spend?? Lets see
Potting compost 0 got some leftovers from previous purchases
38 cm pot 1.99 sterling
Sunflower seeds 2.50 sterling
TOTAL: 4.49 sterling
Not bad spending for so many Sunflowers. Ok guys thank you for reading hope that this is helpful. You can find my channel on YouTube just search Jaroslav Zejman and my channel should pop up. Any tips or tricks growing Sunflowers let me know just click HOME on top of this blog and you will find section to contact me.
Next blog will be about Biological protection of you plants in the garden using Nemasis - Beneficial Nematodes. See you soon