How to Take Care of Sunflowers

Hi this is Yolanda Vanveen from vanveenbulbs.com. And in this segment we're going to learn about how to plant sunflowers. So there's different ways that you can buy your sunflowers. A lot of times you buy them in containers already growing and when they're already growing you really don't have too much but turn around and transplant that pot right into the ground. So just make sure that it gets enough sun. That's the key; it's got to have full hot sun. Sunflowers will not do well in the shade. When you purchase a sunflower in a pot they're easy, you just transplant them. You can leave them in the pot or you can put them right into the ground either way but make sure that you leave the dirt around the root so that they don't get too dried out. When you're growing sunflowers from seed there's a lot of easy tricks that you can do. The easiest way that I found to grow seeds is to take the container and open it up. Then take a napkin or a paper towel and put some seeds into there. And once you've got them into the middle kind of spread them out just a bit because you don't want to be too crowded and then I double it up, and I'll wet that down and then put it into a plastic bag. And leave it in the house in a warm spot. So the best time to do this is April or May of every year. You can also grow a second crop of sunflowers into the summer. So you can start another crop of them in July and August as well. But the first crop I usually start in April, May and I give it water, put some water in it and leave it just in a drawer. And then I'll check on it every couple days and eventually the little seeds will start growing, and you'll see just a little sprout. And it is at that time I take the sprouts and I put them right into the ground. And make sure the green is out of the ground and the roots are covered, and I just cover them up. And they will grow very quickly from there. You just put some seed starter mix in here and sprinkle just a few seeds in each one. And give it lots of water and make sure to mist it. Don't just pour water on it, the key is to mist the starter, mist the seeds and they'll start growing. And once they get a pretty good root base then I'll turn around and plant them in the ground. Either way I've had great success with sunflowers. I've put them right into the ground before and I didn't even start them ahead of time, and they've grown well. These came in from the neighbor's yard. The birds brought them or they just flew over here. Either way they're so easy to grow and such a rewarding plant.