Sunflower Garden Ideas

A sunflower garden is an easy garden to grow, with the payoff of having a beautiful bounty of amazing blooms. Grow your sunflower garden for the harvest of the nutritious sunflower seed, or to attract a variety of birds as well as create a natural "fort" for your children. Cut the sunflowers grown in your garden for an ornamental and always tasteful bouquet--fresh or dried.

Mix Colors

Sunflowers come in a variety of colors. Create a stunning sunflower garden by collecting and planting several different sunflower plants. Some traditionally colored sunflower plants are the Holiday, Icarus, Sunbright and Sunrich Orange sunflowers. Some varieties of red-hued sunflowers are the Autumn Beauty, Moulin Rouge, Joker and Velvet Queen. For two-tone sunflowers, plant the Ring of Fire sunflower. For different textures, plant the Sundance Kid, the Teddy Bear and Tohokujhae sunflowers.

Short and Tall

In your sunflower garden, create a tier effect by planting dwarf varieties in the front and giant varieties in the back of the garden. Alternatively, plant a garden of dwarf sunflowers within a wall of giant sunflowers. For this effect, do not plant the giant sunflowers too close together to ensure your dwarf sunflowers can still get enough sunshine--sunflowers need full sun. Some giant sunflower plants are Kong sunflowers and Russian giants (growing up to 20 feet tall). Several varieties of sunflowers that grow to be four to seven feet tall, as well as several dwarf varieties that only grow to two or three feet.

Natural Trellis

Grow morning glories in your sunflower garden to create a natural trellis effect. As your sunflowers grow tall and straight, the winding, climbing vines of the other flowers will create a beautiful contrast in your garden. The yellow of the sunflower will complement the blues, purples and deep pinks of morning glories. This combination also attracts hummingbirds that come to feed off the morning glories, as well as birds and butterflies.