Celebrate Summer with Sunflowers

Nothing says summer like the cheery blooms of sunflowers

Stuart Boone from Red Bluff , California , commit in these pictures of an assortment of sunflowers he grew in his garden this year . Sunflowers are terrific plants , native to the United States , gaudy , and comfortable to farm from seeded player . In accession , they produce abundant nectar and pollen for bee and other good insects , and their cum heads are incredible natural bird feeders once the bloom is over .

If you are look to maximise the benefit for pollinators , avoid variety grade as “ pollenless . ” These varieties are great for cut flowers because they do n’t shed pollen all over your table when sit in a vase , but out in the garden , that pollen is worthful food for all sorts of bees .

All these sunflowers are potpourri of the same annual specie , Helianthus annuus , which is aboriginal to a wide belt of North America and was domesticated by Native Americans for its large , delicious ejaculate .

‘ Mammoth ’ is one of the heavy diversity of sunflower . These very improbable plant with very declamatory flowers have been bred to produce just one stem with one monolithic blossom on the ending of it . They ’re the most dramatic and iconic of helianthus , but once that one flower has bloomed , that ’s commonly it . If you require to have sunflowers all summer , either keep sowing plant life every workweek or two , or choose one of the shorter , forficate varieties that will flower longer with minuscule bloom .

This view of an tremendous helianthus make it look like it is trying to produce taller than the house!View our flora guide to sunflower here .

‘ Teddy Bear ’ is an sure-enough - fashioned variety of sunflower , one of the few double - bloom selections , that produces flowers with hoi polloi and masses of long , showy petal . These three-fold pattern are like to those in Vincent van Gogh ’s celebrated painting of sunflower .

‘ Autumn Beauty ’ is a germ strain that produces a beautiful potpourri of rosiness diversely marked with dissimilar sum of money of bolshie in the petals .

This pale yellow helianthus ‘ Canary ’ is being revel by a visiting bee .

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