I have been converting acres of pastureland into wildflowers for bee/bird and insect food. With over 250 species of sunflowers, I am overwhelmed with choices. Could someone suggest a yellow, full sun, one flower per stalk, 4 to 6 foot variety with lots of pollen for zone 5, irrigated land? Could you also advise if I should plant the section of sunflowers together or distribute the seed throughout the wildflowers fields? TIA
The original wild sunflower is good for bees, and will reseed itself. But it is not a 'one flower per stalk' type. Those are the cultivated types with one larger flower.
They have been breeding some with little or no pollen, so they are good cut flowers (no mess), so avoid those types. I would think that pretty much all the older types (Mammoth Russian, and a lot of the ornamentals) would work just fine. If you want to help other critters you could grow the black oil type, and feed the birds, too.
As for layout, I think a wildflower patch should not be too well organized. I would do a couple of patches here and there, maybe half a dozen or so plants in each patch.
This message was edited Dec 20, 2014 6:17 PM
I cant advise on the type of Sun Flowers you need and Can grow in your area, the only advice I can offer is to get a book on the WILD flower species that are natural or best for your area.
Here in UK, a lot of gardeners are turning a patch over to wild flower gardening and most look absolutely beautiful, the ones that spoil the whole effect are the people who plant in rows, I think Diana touched on this, Do what I do when planting huge bags of bulbs, take handful's and gently scatter them, plant wherever they drop, use a hand trowel and if you have germinated the seeds into little plantlet's, pop them into the soil where they land, it looks far more natural, nature dont grow in row's or straight lines or clumps of equal numbers, and it looks daft,
The following year, the birds will have scattered the sunflower seeds and you should find even more and possibly more variety as some get pollinated by insects and birds etc.
Good luck, hope you find the right Sunflowers as there golden colourings look amazing swaying in the breeze amongst other colours.
best of luck and kind Regards.
WeeNel.
Hi OniOni-
WeeNel makes a good point about natural choices. Sadly, there are no native sunflowers in western Washington (I looked). But that does not mean you cannot grow them!
And Diana is right, many of the zillions of hybrids have been specifically bred to reduce pollen.
I have two suggestions- Get seeds of the original Helianthus annuus, the common sunflower, which is native over much of the US, including eastern WA. These obviously will feed the birds and the bees. I quickly found two sources for seed. American Meadows (doesn't have a great reputation here on DG, which I think is not due to the seeds they sell but rather the teeny weeny plants they sell), and Eden Brothers (also not a great reputation but how could you go wrong with a packet of seeds) These seeds are super cheap.
I also noticed several companies will sell you packets of a mix of their sunflower seeds, some of which are probably good.
You might call Territorial Seeds, in Oregon. They sell lots of varieties, and since they trial them they should be able to tell you which ones attract bees (they have an excellent reputation, and will talk to you).
This is all assuming you want annual sunflowers rather than perennial. I have a perennial sunflower Helianthus 'Lemon Queen' which the bees absolutely love.However it needs some support, and gets about 7 feet tall. The first few years the slugs caused a lot of damage, but now it is established it grows so fast in the spring they cannot really cause much damage. I baited for slugs a few years, now I never do. I doubt a tiny little plant could make it the first year without baiting here in the PNW.
Good luck and let us know how it goes.
LOVE the flowers, and the doggie too.
Hi OniOni- I just had another idea for you. Spend some long winter evenings poking around in DG old threads, I am thinking particularly about a member named brendak654, who has some fabulous Midwestern gardens like what you are doing. She seems to have come up with some very interesting techniques to make it easier, and might have found just the sunflower variety you want, for the same reasons.
Here is a site you might try. www.wildseedfarms.com. They have mixes for specific regions and single flower species. They offer large and small packages.
Thank you all for helping me. Diana_K: I had wondered why growers would want pollen-less sunflowers. It made little sense to me, but now I know. I did not know that the one flower per stalk were not the 'original' variety. Think I will plant both types now. I feed lots of black oil sunflower seeds to the birds so perhaps the birds would enjoy harvesting their own seeds straight from the source.
WeeNel: I've always admired the UK's hedgerow programs. Such wise ways to share the land with it's original inhabitants! Wish I could grow bulbs but far too many burrowing beasts so bulbs never make it. I will be fencing off some sunflower patches to ensure the deer don't devour them again. Deer don't share well.
MiniLakeStevens: Purchased hundreds of $ of wildflower seeds from Eden Brothers with good results but am always looking for other reliable sources. Most of the bulk seeds I get are annuals. I plan on introducing some mini/micro clovers into the grassy areas that are more difficult to groom thus limiting the weeds and producing earlier clover blossoms for my Mason bees. Found Brendak854 pictures…wow! Will be studying her techniques too. And I am planting your suggested Lemon Queen around my potting shed, affectionally known as The Dirty Hoe.
1Lisac: Will be checking out your outlet suggestion soon. Thank you all for taking the time to help educate me.
Why not just throw out a bunch of different kinds of sunflower seeds and see what grows. The bees will pick the best ones to pollinate, and those will take over. My garden has sunflowers growing as weeds because I put sunflower seeds in a feeder for birds. The birds plant the seeds for me.
Thanks Bluesox, I am going to throw in a helping of assorted sunflower seeds this year during the planting of the wildflower meadows. One of the best things I learned from this thread is that there is a perennial sunflower, Lemon Queen, which I am searching for now. One year I planted a small section of sunflowers and the deer made quick work of that! This year I will try to "deer proof" a small section just for the sunflowers. Wish me luck.
Cant Wait to see the results OniOni, you must send in a picture IF you can.
Good luck, think spring is on it's way as I have a mass of Snowdrops in full bloom, a few weeks time it will be the Daff's then Blue bells heralding in the start of early summer.
Here in UK were still being blasted with storms, some snow but mostly heavy rain, ground unworkable and sodden.
Take care and enjoy your new wild flower gardening.
Best Regards,
WeeNel.
