I bought sunflower seeds. Aside from making sure they don't shade the rest of my

[Raven]

garden, any advice about growing them?

[NMDemDist2]

1. plant your cucumbers in the same hole

they love each other and the cukes will just climb that ol' sunflower

[Raven]

2. Damn! You are brilliant...and wonderful...and thanks! n/t

[KarenS]

3. I love Sunflowers and recently bought a variety of seeds,,,,

not just the big yellow ones but shorter ones and different colors

ALSO I bought some English cucumber seeds

HA!!! ThankYou for this great idea,,,, I'll be out in the garden in an hour or so planting all these little seeds together :)

[stellanoir]

4. Some companion plant them with morning glories also.

I've seen playhouses for little kids made of sunflowers and morning glories which are really lots of fun.

I've grown all sorts of sunflowers for a couple decades. I always plant them on May Day.

I especially love the dwarf lemon yellow ones. They are very delicate and lovely in bouquets.

Tried to grow some white ones last year but they didn't fare very well but we had a drought. The traditional ones, the Autumn Beauties, and the Red Suns are much hardier and prospered though.

Have fun with them.

[ThomWV]

5. Spread them out.

My wife usually plants several around the gardens, one here, one there, a couple over in the corner. They are tall and large but because they are spread out they don't really shade anything, at least not for more than a few minutes a day as the sun swings its arc.

They are very strong root systems so you don't have to be concerned about them falling over. This might sound silly, but watch your back when you go to pull them out of the ground in the fall. Also, you might want to keep them away from walkways. They tend to droop over and toward the end of the season they can become an annoying obstacle if they overhang your paths.

As they get old they get ugly but its still nice to leave a few in the Garden for the birds. We don't do much with the seeds other than use them for bird feed to tell you the truth, but they do look pretty for a good long time.

I couldn't tell you a thing about varities; we tend to just buy whatever Southern States has on the shelf or the Burpee catalog says is the sweetest thing since the salvation.

[Inchworm]

6. Der, I forgot all about Southern States

I need to start going there and getting familiar with them. Seems like they would be more benificial to a new grower.

Thanks for reminding me.

:hi: