I'm glad you figured it out, Mike. I hadn't chimed in because I had no clue. It's a beautiful plant. I found some decent info on it at San Marcos, I'll provide the link below. How's the heel? Here is a link that might be useful: Canary Island Sunflower at San Marcos

Sharon, For the grit, I buy Manna Pro Poultry Grit from Tractor Supply Co. Any other feed store should have it. Just make sure it's made from granite. A decent Turface substitute is NAPA floor dry #8822. If the price is the same, use the Turface.

If you get tired that pot anytime soon, I bet there'd be keen interest here if there was a raffle. Happy plant and pot, the pot makes me think of wavy gravy. Here is a link that might be useful: This post was edited by cactusmcharris on Wed, Nov 6, 13 at 20:26

Lots of suggestions here and it will be interesting to follow this through so please do keep us in the loop! I still think the mix it's in will be problematic, it's very peaty and will hold onto any water you provide for ever and a day. You need to give the plant the best possible chance of clinging onto life, and it's currently hanging on by a very thin thread! If it were mine, I would chose a smaller pot and mix at least 50% perlite with that mix. Giving it 'room to breathe' in such a large pot with lots of water holding mix can have a bad effect especially on a plant that's already struggling to get a grip on life. Just went above to check something and now realise Rina says the same, it needs repotting...so decided to leave this post to emphasise the need :-)