Did you know there are NATIVE sunflowers?

Here’s 5 reasons to grow native sunflowers … besides them looking amazing interplanted with Anise Hyssop & Zinnias~our favorite ‘rebel flower’

READ ON FRiEND…. READ ON….

5 reasons to grow native sunflowers

#1 Nature’s Bird Feeders!

Native sunflowers BRANCH and bloom hundreds of sunflowers per season. Good thing too because dirds love native sunflowers!

From nibbling the yellow petals to the dried seed heads on a cold Winter day. In our gardens we see lots of goldfinches swaying on the sunflower branches in Summer and early Winter.

Saving Seeds for Overwintering Birds…

To save some extra seed heads for Winter bird feeding simply cut SOME OF the stalks with dried seed heads (before the birds get them)

LEAVE STALKS FOR OVERWINTERING POLLINATORS!

Store the cut stalks in tied bunches in a dry & shaded area. In Winter, simply hang outside near a shrub, tree or your bird feeders.

Then make some cocoa & watch the birding show in your own backyard!

#2 they are BEE-LOVED by pollinating insects too.

Native sunflowers have open blooms. They make perfect landing pads for bees, moths and butterflies!

This center part of the sunflower is actually hundreds of tiny disk flowers producing pollen for the pollinators.

Once pollinated these little disk flowers will become the seeds to feed birds and other wildlife!

Reason #3 is only 2 WORDS: PERENNIAL SUNFLOWERS!

You won’t have to sow these babies every Spring only to watch the squirrels, bunnies and deer eat the seedlings!

Native sunflowers are deer and other cute mammals tolerant~ and if they do nibble the plants they are actually helping you to ‘Chelsea Chop’ the plants from getting to big and to give you even more blooms!

No sowing & no fuss

Almost all native sunflowers to North America are perennials! This means the original plant will begin to GROW in Spring, BLOOM over the Summer into mid-Autumn and be DORMANT in the Winter.

During the cool months of Autumn and early Spring ie February, native perennials are growing roots to support the next seasons grow cycle.

So your native sunflowers will come back BIGGER & have MORE BLOOMS the following Spring and Summer!

#4 is RHIZOMES! RHIZOMES!

Native sunflowers are rhizomatous as well as self-sowing.

(I hear you over there saying “Melanie what the heck does that even mean?!?)

Friends this means that native sunflowers will populate your garden by their seeds AND by their rhizomes (think roots with bulbs).

This is GOOD NEWS for you because you can divide your native sunflower patches in early Spring or late Fall!

Plant the rhizomes in pots. Share them with friends or spread them around in your garden … why you could even grow them in big pots on your porch or deck!