With bright blooms that go all summer, sunflowers are heat-tolerant, resistant to pests, and attractive to pollinators. Harvest the seeds in late summer and fall for a healthy snack, or feed them to the birds! Learn how to plant, grow, and care for sunflowers.
About Sunflowers
The sunflower (Helianthus annuus) is an annual plant with a sizeable daisy-like flower face. Its scientific name comes from the Greek words helios (“sun”) and anthos (“flower”). The flowers come in many colors (yellow, red, orange, maroon, brown), but they are commonly bright yellow with brown centers that ripen into heavy heads filled with seeds. Sunflowers make excellent cut flowers, and many attract bees, birds, and butterflies.
Sunflowers are heliotropic, which means that they turn their flowers to follow the movement of the Sun across the sky from east to west and then return at night to face the east, ready again for the morning sun. Heliotropism happens during the earlier stages before the flower grows heavy with seeds.
There are tons of varieties of sunflowers available today, so there’s bound to be one that fits your garden. Choose between those with branching stems or single stems, those that produce ample pollen for pollinators or are pollen-free (best for bouquets), those that stay small or tower above the rest of the garden, or those that produce edible seeds! Learn why you should start growing these happy flowers in your garden.
Here and yonder, high and low,
Goldenrod and sunflowers glow.
–Robert Kelley Weeks (1840–76)
How Long Do Sunflowers Take to Bloom?
A reasonably fast-growing flower for its size, most sunflower varieties mature in only 70 to 95 days. The largest sunflower varieties grow to over 16 feet tall, while smaller varieties have been developed for small spaces and containers and rarely grow larger than a foot tall! The flower heads can reach over 12 inches in diameter within the large seeded varieties.
