Seed Talk #79 - Early Sunflower Checklist

Would you like to have sunflowers blooming as early as possible in your growing season? Wondering what steps you should take to make that happen and which varieties to choose? Today, Lisa and Layne discuss a checklist of key items to keep in mind when planting "early bird" sunflowers. They cover the potential risks and rewards, variety and color considerations, recommended sowing and planting timelines, hardening off, transplanting and spacing tips, protecting with lightweight row cover, and more. Listen to the podcast and look forward to enhancing your late spring and early summer bouquets with gorgeous sunflower blooms!
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The “Seed Talk with Lisa & Layne” podcast is produced by The Gardener’s Workshop and co-hosted by Lisa Mason Ziegler and Layne Angelo. Lisa is the founder and owner of The Gardener’s Workshop, where Layne works as Seed Manager. Lisa is the award-winning author of Vegetables Love Flowers and Cool Flowers and the publisher of Flower Farming School Online, Farmer-Florist School Online, and Florist School Online. Watch Lisa’s Story and connect with her on social media. Layne is an avid gardener, seed starter, and engineer who loves learning and applying her technical knowledge to all areas of life, including gardening and growing flowers. Thanks for joining us!
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[@cbak1819]

Oh... good point about keeping row cover 24/7.

[@joycedagostino8869]

I'm in the Denver, CO area and a couple of years ago test planted some sunflower seeds and had them germinate and come up in early May. Our last frost date is supposed to be mid May but often I don't set out tender annuals or garden vegetables until around Memorial Day. The sunflowers that came up the first week of May did very well, they tolerated some last minute cold weather, think one year they got some light snow too and just kept on going. They are hardier than we think because I have volunteers that come up every year. I also loved your suggestion last year about succession planting the sunflowers and zinnias, tried it and it worked out very well too! Thanks.

[@LayneAngelo]

How fantastic! Thanks so much for sharing your experiments with everyone - very helpful ☺️ Wishing you lots of spectacular sunflower blooms and a wonderful day 💚🤗💚

[@pammcnary2770]

Thank You for all the awesome details. I’m in NH Z4b/5a and my last frost is end of May. Last year I did put out sunflowers beginning of May and did a haphazard job of covering them with plastic on the nights that went below freezing. The plugs that suffered were actually the ones that I put out in the middle of a hot day and they got heat stressed. Under the plastic they didn’t seem to mind going below freezing at night. This year I will set up low wire hoops with frost fabric plus 4’ hoops covered with plastic and experiment with succession planting in April/May. I figure seeds cost penny’s and as a retired flower gardener my time is free. Getting flowers for Memorial Day is probably a dream, but 4th of July should be doable 🤞. With such a short growing season knowing about these tricks is such a potential boost. If I followed the “after last frost” rule I wouldn’t get sunflowers till August (ugh)

[@LayneAngelo]

Thanks so much for sharing! Good point that this is particularly helpful for people with a shorter growing season 🌻 Wishing you some spectacular sunflowers for Independence Day! Thanks again, and have a lovely week 💚🤗💚

[@aongv]

My cousins didn't know that sunflowers could be different colors. They saw the white and red sunflowers in my garden and were surprised!

[@LayneAngelo]

I love that! What a fun surprise for your cousins ☺️ Thanks so much for sharing this sweet story, and have a wonderful day! 💚☺️💚

[@oliviakelly6814]

Thank you! Super helpful information as always! 🌻

[@LayneAngelo]

You are so welcome! Thanks so much for the positive feedback and for taking the time to leave a comment 😊 Have a fabulous day! 💚🤗💚

[@brookestranberg4054]

🌻 Thanks for the reminder and I somehow over all these times missed Lisa saying you can plant straight to the garden hoop and cover in early spring on these. Oh man that makes my life easier 😊

[@LayneAngelo]

Yes, that is such a great shortcut! 🙌 Thanks so much for this feedback, as well - we try to make a point of repeating things (even if we have mentioned them previously), since we never know when someone might have an “aha” moment ☺️ Thanks again, and have a fantastic day! 💚🤗💚

[@sadhanatate642]

Great content

[@joannesmith1287]

Thank you for your continued free sharing of your knowledge and experience. I am not a cut flower grower. I am growing sunflowers as transplants for the home garden. Should I let them bloom or leave them at the bud stage. And when should I start them. I want them ready for Mother's Day planting?

[@uteberg4781]

Great Video!!! Thank you so much!!! Nice greetings from denmark! 🤗💐🌻

[@LayneAngelo]

How wonderful to know we have a flower friend in Denmark! 🇩🇰 Hope you are enjoying a lovely spring in your beautiful country ☺️ Thanks so much for watching, and have a fantastic day! 💚🤗💚

[@uteberg4781]

@@LayneAngelo Thank you so much!!! I love your vlogs and Lisas book "Cool flowers" is such a big help for my daily work as organic flowerfarmer! I also wish you a wonderful spring and all the very best for the upcoming season!! 🤗🌻💐💖

[@blakesblooms]

Very informative. I'm doing it again this year

[@LayneAngelo]

Yay! Wishing you lots of beautiful blooms and a lovely day 💚🤗💚

[@daisybred]

Thank you, going to give it a small try!

[@myswedishcottagegarden]

Great timing! My last frost is in mid June, but usually the weather is warm and good from middle of may. Just that one frost night in June, that is annoying. Good to know I can start my sunflowers earlier! Thanks!

[@cbak1819]

Do you gal's have a video on what Lisa does to the beds to prep for the next planting. Does she just pull the roots out and add compost? I can't recall you gal's talking on that subject.

[@cbak1819]

Thanks again Ladies for helping us newbies out💜 So as long as the soil is workable that is the right soil temp? I would think the soil temp is important for warm season annuals. What say you?🌻🌻🌻

Loved this episode! Thank you. I bought a ton of Procut White Lite seeds and planned on planting them all summer until mid-July. I wanted the white sunflower look bordering my colorful flower garden all season. I know you mentioned the bugs getting them later in the season. I'm in Lewisburg, TN (1 hour south of Nashville) zone 7b. Will these bugs affect me later in the season too? If I switched to another sunflower later, I'd prefer Procut Gold Lite. Do you think those would do better against pests? Thank you so much for your help and advice! Also, I would really LOVE an episode on watering. I recently installed drip tape. Traditionally I've used the method of letting the soil fully dry between waterings. However, I recently heard about micro watering where you never let the root system stress and you set a timer to water 1-15 minutes a day (depending on zone + how much average water loss through evaporation etc) but I"m not sure that method was meant for flowers and not just veggies. I'd love to know exactly how Lisa waters, what she uses (including where she buys supplies), and when she waters. When you have to upgrade from soaker hoses to drip irrigation it is a nightmare trying to figure it all out. Again, thank you for your helpful info!! Loving all I'm learning!

[@cbak1819]

Hi Layne, thanks for the video cast🎉 do you know what color the seed is for the white light sunflower? Thank you.💜

[@LayneAngelo]

Hey! Yes, the seed for ‘ProCut White Lite’ (and ‘ProCut White Nite’, as well) is dark. Hope that helps! Have a great weekend 💚🤗💚

[@rubyoro0]

I planted sunflower seedlings out 2/16. Hoping for flowers 4/26 for an event. Both procut and branching. What you say? Zone 9b. What will happen if I don’t pinch branching? Don’t want to delay blooms.

[@jacklawver4403]

I had planted some branching sunflowers and they come up mid febuary here in kansas city MO zone 6b. We got many nights bellow 20 even and they acted like they didn't even care? Are branching sunflowers just that more hardy?

[@jacklawver4403]

form seeding themself