I also grow Mammoth Sunflowers. I bought a package of seeds from Burpee bout 3 years ago and I have not run out. You can easily sow the seeds/fruit into the ground and you should have no problem with germination. They initially begin with a tap root but then develop a pretty elaborate root system. I would keep them in full sun, but decently away from more delicate plants like tomatoes or peppers. Mammoth sunflowers get HUGE. Last year they reached over 12 feet, I literally had people stopping at my front door to ask about them. Other then that they are a very hardy flower, I never gave them any real special treatment besides some water when they got dry and some organic fertilizer (comfrey) every now and then. On a related note, anyone who likes Sunflowers should look into the The Great Sunflower Project. I have 2 Lemon Queen (perennial) plants going in this year along with Autumn Beauties and Mammoth Sunflowers (annuals). Here is a link that might be useful: The Great Sunflower Project

Its been awhile, Gracie I may have miss your email. ill try to contact you again. Here is a link that might be useful: My SeedSwap FB page

Paul I've grown them and was not impressed with the taste but then I've never been a fan of Black varieties.On the positive side they have been heavy producers My Korean wife and her Korean friends love them. There are a couple of markets that has plants every year in the Tacoma area. If your ever in the Tacoma area my theme for this year is Black varieties. It appears I will have excess plants of Black Tomatoes that I'm willing to share. If interested PM me if interested. Jim

Dave, I am certainly not ready to make any conclusions about this vendor unless/until I am able to make contact. This could have been a simple error and easily correctable. I won't know if I can't make contact. THAT is the issue. It may be that measuring response time in weeks rather than days is the norm here, even by phone as well as email, and others may be fine with that even if I am not. It may be that certain days or hours are better for reaching someone, but if that is the case I don't have that information. I believe in my last post, with that person, it was suggested that calling would have been better to resolve things sooner, so I have kept that advise in mind and that is what I have done this time. It just hasn't helped in this situation, so it is very possible that that my current vendor and I are just not well matched as a business and customer. Either way, that vendor rating site I was not aware of, I am only familiar with the one on another large garden site. Can you tell me how to find it? It would certainly come in handy in the future in deciding who I might like to try. I was actually happy with everything from Tasteful garden if they hadn't made substitutions without checking with me. THEY were actually the ones I was referring to when I said it must be something cosmic that I can't actually get the correct plants that I order. In that case it was not an error but they stated they had made substitions when I had requested that they not do so. But plants, health, response time, etc. were fine. I would not mind giving them a mostly positive rating. I also used White Flower Farm, and despite many negatives I have read about them and the ridiculous prices, the order was correct and complete, the plants large and healthy, maybe in part due to the fact that they are close to me and orders get here overnight. They are a large nursery, though, with many employees and so customer service and response time is immediate. There is also another site that I believe stated very honestly on the web site what their situation was more hobbyists than business, and that if you could not wait as long as necessary to consider going elsewhere. While I might use them in the future, I do keep that in mind and did decide to go elsewhere for plants that would make up the majority of my garden for the year. If everything else is great and long response times are the only problem, I don't think it would be unfair to say so. It might even help to avoid similar issues in the future and help ensure that expectations are realistic on both sides. By the way, I did not reference my previous post. I did not want to reveal the identity of this site/business/person until I had more information. It is your assumption that it is the same. That may or may not be the case. Sue