Hmmm. I always thought sunflowers were pretty drought tolerant. Maybe they're just versatile plants, Droogie!

Congratulations on your seedlings. Mine reseeded from last year, so yours probably will too if you leave some blooms to dry out on the plants late in the season. I have yellow and red blooms, and I grow them for the silvery checkerspot butterflies. So if you see little black caterpillars on your plants, they're butterflies in the making.

My backyard is pretty much underwater right now, too. I have a low spot in the middle, and a stretch on the west side that doesn't drain well, so there is standing water in it. Not to mention the fact that 1) the ground was already wet; 2) my grandddaughter wanted to play in her wiggle sprinkler yesterday; and 3) it's been raining a lot.

If you pinch your sunflowers when they have their second set of true leaves, you'll get bushier plants, too.

Susan

Yeah, I plan to save about 25 seeds (that's how many I planted in the first place) to plant next spring and eat the rest. If they attract butterflies, that'll be extra cool.

I love sunflowers. They're flowers as well as vegetables. Plus they're easy to grow.

Also: For Dawn, in case she shows up...

I really did plant those first tomato plants too early. The ones I planted last weekend are almost as tall and bushy as the ones I planted before Easter. And some of them have just as many blossoms.

My cherry tomato, Arkansas traveler and celebrity hybrid tomatoes are just jumping out of the ground. I buried them deep with just a few leaves sticking out, and they're already bigger than they were when I buried them! This rain will be good for them too, I bet.

Hi Jeff!

We are well here. Our flooding was last week and it was only flash flooding so it subsided within a few hours. I hope everyone else is as fortunate as we were. I am afraid that with the prolonged weekend rains, some people will have more prolonged flooding, and that prolonged flooding is so much more destructive.

Congratulations on the sunflower seedlings! Isn't it a great feeling to plant seeds and have those seedlings 'miraculously' spring up out of the ground!

What your sunflowers will need from you in the coming weeks and months is:

(A) Proper spacing, which often involves thinning them out after they have sprouted. If I have to thin, I usually wait until they have at least 4 real leaves before I pull out the weaker ones and leave the stronger ones. If you leave them too close to one another, they will be too crowded and your flower size will suffer. The back of your seed packet should tell you the proper species for whichever variety you have.

(B) A little irrigation now and then if nature fails to provide it. I think that this year the natural rainfall will probably be all they need, unless it abruptly stops.

(C) Vigilance. Watch out for caterpillars. Some years we have some kind of tiny black and orange caterpillars that seem to come out of nowhere. They will completely strip the plants of all leaves in just a couple of days. I usually hand-pick the caterpillars when they first appear and move them to native sunflowers far away from my garden because I am a butterfly nut and don't want to use Bt. Of course, Bt is the best solution for anyone who wants to control caterpillars if you don't have time to handpick them off the plants, but BT is toxic to all butterflies and moths. Here in southern Oklahoma, those caterpillars usually don't appear until it is a little warmer and the plants are 2' to 4' tall. You may see them earlier, later, or not at all in your location. I didn't have any last year, but have had them most other years.

(D) More vigilance. Lots of pests attack sunflower leaves. Keep your eyes out for them. If any attack yours, let us know and we'll try to help you figure it out from there. Sometimes later in the summer spider mites will appear.

(E) Watch for skunks, possums and armadillos. This may not be an issue for you if your yard is fully fenced in, and it may not be an issue for you since you live in an urban area, but it is a big issue here, so I thought I'd mention it just in case. There is a white grub that often appears in the soil around the sunflower plants. The skunks, in particular, will dig up your entire plant to get those grubs.

Our second year here I had a row of sunflowers all around my then 30' x 30' veggie garden. They were just outside the fence. On Mother's Day morning, I came outside to discover that those sunflowers, which were then about 3' tall, had all been dug up. Totally. Completely. No survivors. It was awful. Now we jokingly refer to that as the 'Mother's Day Massacre' but I wasn't amused at the time. I don't have that sort of problem much any more, and I assume it is because the years of organic gardening practices have changed the soil and the grubs aren't here any longer. Also, I only plant the sunflowers within the fenced-in portion of the landscape. :)

(F) Feeding. I think that sunflowers do best with a little extra fertilizer. Nothing fancy. Just a couple of handfuls of any organic fertilizer scattered around the base of the plant once or twice during the growing season.
If you have already added organic amendments to the area where the sunflowers are growing, additional fertilizer may not be necessary.

Happy Growing!

Dawn

Hi Jeff and Susan,

While I was writing my long answer to Jeff's original post, you both posted, so I am playing catchup.

Susan, I hope the water is helpful and not harmful to your landscape. With all the dragging around of water hoses last year, and the huge water bills that accompanied all that, I know the rain is a blessing although it is temporarily frustrating to be 'under water'

I think sunflowers are tolerant of both waterlogged soil and drought as mine have experienced both conditions and never skipped a beat.

Jeff,

It is true that tomato plants which are planted late will almost always 'catch-up' to those planted early in most regards. However, there is one exception and it is the reason that I continue to plant early in the years that I can.

The tomato plants I planted earliest are loaded with fruit that is about 1/2 of its mature size. Some of the fruit are almost full size. I will have ripe fruit from these plants in May. The tomato plants I planted latest will catch up, size-wise, by the end of May, but I won't get ripe fruit from them until June. It is a small difference, but I enjoy the earlier tomatoes.

It sounds like your plants are doing great and I am so happy for y'all. We have had 6 ripe tomatoes off the container-grown Better Bush tomatoes and we have enjoyed them so much.

I can't wait for y'all to have some ripe tomatoes off your own plants. If you aren't addicted to fresh, home-grown tomatoes yet, you will be! The tomatoes in the supermarket do not even come close to home-grown ones in flavor and texture.

Dawn

Sounds great, Dawn.

I would describe my area as suburban rather than urban. I've seen live armadillos and other critters in the area, so it's not out of the question. I will be vigilant.

I think my wife will make friends with some of the caterpillars that show up. She already met and named our first "cat" of the season -- a little green guy she named Lewis.

I'm glad to hear butterflies will be friends with my sunflowers. I'll be sure to keep one eye on the flowers in case a good snapshot presents itself.

My tomatoes have finally reached a point where I've lost count of how many blossoms they have. I give them a good shaking now and then to ensure that they are pollinated and hardened up.

I think I'm finally done planting everything I need to plant. It's a good feeling. Now all I have to do is keep an eye on things and give them a snack now and then.

Here are the adults of the butterfly, Droogie!

Here is a link that might be useful: Silvery Checkerspots Adult Butterflies

Here is a link to the caterpillars so you can ID them.

Dawn, the orange and black cats you saw were likely those of the silvery checkerspots as they a longitudinal line of orange on either side of the caterpillar. However, do be careful in handling them since buck moth caterpillars (a very pretty moth) also use sunflowers as a host, and they have stinging spines.

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Silvery Checkerspot Adults and Larvae

Wow. They are really stunning animals as adults. The larvae are cute in a odd, spiky way as well.

So I'm confused. These caterpillars are harmful to my sunflowers? If they won't hurt my plants, then they can stay.

Speaking of, the rain seems to have done my sprouts some good. They are about 3 inches tall now and they have grown so quickly the dirt is still clinging to their stems.

Also, I was counting the sprouts. I planted 25 seeds and there are 25 sprouts. I have a 100 percent success rate so far in planting seeds!

They will eat your foliage to a nubbin if you have a lot, and usually they appear in large numbers. They won't kill your plants. If you have some extra seeds or can purchase a packet of plain old sunflowers at Wal-mart or HD, I'd do that. Then you can move the cats to the plants you don't care so much about.

They really are pretty and I love to watch the butterflies flitting about on my flowers.

Susan

Susan,

Well, now I know why I have so many Silvery Checkerspots every year. Apparently the sunflowers I grow have been nurturing a lot of young'uns.

Jeff,

I grow native sunflowers on various parts of the property and transfer the cats there. Otherwise, they eat every leaf off every plant before the flowerheads have a chance to grow large enough to bloom.

Congratulations on your success with your seedlings. If they are planted too closely and will eventually need to be thinned, you can also dig them up with a trowel and transplant them to a different location. They really aren't picky about soil and would do pretty well even in unimproved soil.

And, as for that comment that you made: "I'm finally done planting everything I need to plant", I have only one response: "Get real!" lol A gardener is never 'finally done'. Just wait. You'll see. I am grinning as I write this. Most people who love gardening are never really done. Sometimes it is the allure of a plant that is too irresistable to ignore. Sometimes it is the need to replace a plant that has not done well. Most gardeners are never really 'done', even when they think they are.

Happy Growing!

Dawn

Dawn, the first time I saw them on my sunflowers, I was horrified! I wasn't yet into raising caterpillars. They completely skeletonized a huge sunflower I'd been nurturing from seed left behind by the birds. However - don't be scared, Doogie - the plant went on to bloom beautifully. It just looked like a big ole sunflower on top of a stick! LOL!

They are pretty little things, though.

Susan

Dawn:

You're right. I'm deluding myself! I'm probably not done planting yet.

For example, my chamomile has turned into a small shrub and needs to be divided. My sage has quadrupled -- the plants are twice their original size at least and is splitting off into other plants. The dill, too, is gigantic and needs to be divided or trimmed back.

Is there anything I need to know about dividing plants, or is it just a simple matter of cutting them in half with a spade?

Jeff,

I don't usually divide chamomile since it reseeds so easily. I will cut it back really, really hard once it is about through with a flush of flowering and it will then regrow and reflower. The method used to propagate chamomile depends oh which type you are growing. If it is English Chamomile, you can propagate it via seeds, division or by layering. If it is German Chamomile, you usually propagate it by seed only.

I treat dill the same way as chamomile, cutting it back hard if I want to keep it growing and in flower, or let it go to seed if I want the seeds for cooking. I have never heard of anyone propagating it via division or cuttings, only by seed.

Sage is easy to grow from cuttings. I have never tried to divide it from the rootball and don't know if that is how it is usually done. But, if you see clumps forming away from the main clump you can dig the little clumps up, separate them from the mother clump and replant them. Cut back the topgrowth of the divisions a little to compensate for the shock of being dug and transplanted.

You can divide many perennial plants by cutting the rootball in half, but you will always have to cut back the top a lot to compensate for the digging/cutting/replanting.

I usually just let the herbs grow into huge monsters. I tend to let them reseed, and then I just dig up the tiny seedlings and put them where I want them. In a rainy year, I will cut back herbs many, many times.

Dawn

Ok i am new to all this garden stuff i recently bought some American Giants Hybrid sunflowers and going to plant them next season i Know that they are annuals bought what i dont get is what is reseeding itslef mean ?. i plan on harvesting the seeds an eat them .. And i also ordered the sunflowers to has anybody heard of the Sunflower Super Snack Hybrid Mix they have it on burpee .com

I hope someone can help me sorry if this question stupid LOL thanks tom

Reseeding is when the seeds fall to the ground and grow the next season. Like weeds do.

If a hybrid reseeds it will be something different.

I agree with what Plantermunn said, but with one tiny clarification. Hybrids are created from two or more parents (and with gene splicing and DNA manipulation, the combinations of "parents" can get pretty crazy). When you let seeds fall to the ground and reseed naturally, you can get all kinds of plants as a result. A very small percentage (and sometimes none) MAY resemble the parent plant from which the seed came, but most (and sometimes all) will not.

When I let the American Hybrids reseed, all I get is plain old ordinary-looking native sunflowers.....big branched plants with small flowers.

I've grown all kinds of sunflowers, both hybrid and open-pollinated, and the ones that have produced the largest seedheads with the best seeds have always been the open-pollinated old-fashioned ones like Giant Graystripe and Mammoth Russian. Often, though certainly not always, the hybrids are not quite as wonderful as the ad copy makes them sound. Don't get me wrong....I love the various colors of many of the hybrids, from the almost white flowers of Italian White and Vanilla Ice to the earth tones of Earthwalker to the orange of Soraya or the reds so popular now, if you're just looking for cutting or garden flowers. For snack-type seeds, though, nothing beats the old o-p varieties.

Happy Gardening,

Dawn

I once had a sunflower come up near where I feed the chickens. I let it grow thinking it would make bird seed. It grew wide on the bottom like a christmas tree. On the top it made one tiny flower.It must have been 10 feet tall.

It looked very strange.

Terrence,

Sometimes I get those from bird seed too, but not very often. More often, though, I get a native sunflower that will get about 4' wide, 8' - 12' tall, tons of branches, and each branch will have multiple small blooms-often 25 to 50 or 100 blooms on one plant. If rain falls all summer, these become huge monsters and as they grow, they branch more and more and put out endless amounts of flowers.

I like to scatter handfuls of bird-seed sunflower seeds in the pastures (the unmown ones) before a heavy rain. The rain pounds them into the ground and then they sprout. The deer mostly gobble up all these plants before they can get large enough to flower, but a few generally survive. Once the plants are covered in sunflowers that have gone to seed, the race is on. The wild birds like to "harvest" their own seed from the plants, and the deer do too. So, the wild birds get the seed from the upper flowers that are out of the deer's reach, and the deer get the rest. In a dry, "hungry" summer, the deer eat the sunflowers blossoms themselves before the seed even matures.

Eventually, usually after a hard freeze, I have to mow those pastures down short to prepare for fire season. By then, though, the deer and birds have usually stripped the sunflowers bare, and all I have left is naked stalks.

Dawn