Fun little “kid-sized” sunflowers that were a favorite of both the kids and the birds!
Sunflowers are one of my wife’s favorite annuals, and we decided to try several new varieties during the summer of 2020. I’m so glad the kids picked this one out of the seed catalog, because I probably wouldn’t have, and they ended up being one of my favorites of the summer! My son in particular loved how the plant would be “his size” and that he would be able to “see over it” as compared to many other sunflower varieties! We grew most of the plants in flower beds, but I wanted to try a few in containers and was pleasantly surprised with how well they turned out. We have a collection of plastic pots acquired from garage sales and stored up in our attic — I grabbed a couple and painted them with some leftover spray paint to give them a more fun color. The plants we used in these pots were started indoors to get a head-start on the growing season, and they did much better than those we started directly outside.
Despite the head-start, they took a while to develop blooms as compared to other varieties, but they did last for a while. I added some impatiens around the edge of the containers to give some additional color, and because they could handle the shade from the sunflower’s extra-large leaves! It also worked well to extend the “life” of the container, as the impatiens continued to thrive long after the sunflower had faded, and had been cleaned of all its seeds by the birds. If you are going to grow this variety in a container (which we would highly recommend!) know that the large and broad leaves take a significant amount of space in the container – much more than I anticipated. I would approximate the diameter of the plants we grew to be at least 20″ (so larger than the container we used). I did like the “extended life” that the impatiens gave our container, but if I grow these in the same containers again I will likely just grow the sunflowers. If I use a larger container then we will certainly add some other annuals to create a nice mixed-pot look. The ‘Short Stuff” gives the perfect level of height and would be a nice centerpiece in any large container arrangement!
All of our sunflowers attracted birds, but this variety seemed to be a particular favorite of the goldfinches. This was very exciting for the kids, as we had not previously attracted that species of bird to our backyard, and their beautiful color was fun for the kids to experience for the first time. The smaller seed size and very large blooms was our guess as to why they were so popular, and it was fun to have some in containers on the deck so the kids had a close-up view of the goldfinches from inside the house. Several evenings, our son would comment on how the goldfinches were “having dinner with us,” as they would flock to the deck after the kids vacated the backyard. We had planned to save some seeds for the next year, but the kids enjoyed watching the birds so much that we ultimately decided to just let them eat them all. They seemed to be the first variety that was completely eaten by the birds, and they would begin to work on them when the seeds were still quite immature. We will definitely plant this variety again every summer!
// Dad Gardener
Dad Gardener 