Sunflower Oddity

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DallasDad Murphy, TX(Zone 8a) Jun 29, 2008

I planted some of the giant sunflower seeds a while back, and most of them sprouted. I've been letting them grow, waiting until they got big enough to tie to the fence for support. They were about six inches tall three weeks ago when we left for vacation.

We got back yesterday, and found that several of the plants had grown about two inches and flowered. The flowers are one-and-a-half to two inches across. I thought sunflowers didn't flower until they were mature height. These babies are supposed to reach ten feet, with flowers of eight inches or more across.

Will the inflorescence last all summer? Should I deadhead? What's going on?

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WeeNel Ayrshire Scotland, United Kingdom Jun 29, 2008

Cant be sure, but maybe when you were away on vacation the weather was hot and dry, so the plants thought they had better get a move on and make flowers then quickly form seeds heads, annual plants have to do this all in the one season to survive another year or they would die out of existence, If all the other plants are still growing taller, maybe you had a mixture of seeds as some Sunflowers are much shorter in size than others, it is always a disappointment when you dont get exactly what you felt you had planted and expected, but there could be other reasons too, can you send a picture in to let us see if there is any difference in the plants and the foliage, I wish at this stage I could give you a better answer, but cant really think of anything other than what I have suggested might be a factor in the size, just enjoy them for now. Good luck. Weenel.

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NatureLover1950 Vicksburg, MS(Zone 8a) Jun 29, 2008

I've never deadheaded my sunflowers--I always leave the flowers to form seeds and then enjoy watching all the birds feed on them. I'm not sure if deadheading will cause sunflowers to bloom again anyway. Hopefully, someone who knows will come along with that answer.

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ecrane3 Dublin, CA(Zone 9a) Jun 29, 2008

I think WeeNel may be right about the mix of different sunflowers, or maybe the seed packet was mislabeled and these sunflowers that are short and have small flowers aren't what they were supposed to be. As far as deadheading--I'm not sure if they would bloom again or not, I think most people leave sunflowers alone because they want the seeds. But if there's no way you'd want seeds from these little small short ones, then I'd go ahead and deadhead them and see what happens.

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