MAIN Home Life Gardening Flowers Sunflowers

Sunflowers can grow to over 20 feet tall during a single summer and produce flowers more than 2 feet across!

What better way to teach kids how to garden?

With a curious habit of facing the rising sun in the East, sunflowers provide not only excellent lessons in sun, earth & sky, but a healthy reward. The copious seeds that sunflowers produce provide for a fun and nutritious snack, as well. Little wonder that sunflowers are usually popular favorite for backyard garden fun or classroom learning project.

In addition, sunflower seeds are large enough for little fingers to handle, meaning sunflowers are easy to plant. Just add water, and stand back!

Just remember to stake them early on to support them properly throughout the summer, and provide lots of sun and water as they rapidly grow...and grow...and GROW...

On the Web - How to plant, grow & learn about sunflowers :

Growing Sunflowers - Basic fact sheet from Ohio State University with information on their uses plus tips on how to grow them, common pests & diseases, recommended varieties and a recipe for roasting sunflower seeds.

How to Grow Sunflowers - Tips, advice & instructions from the Gardener's Network including interesting facts, where to sow them, days to maturity, how to harvest them, known pests & diseases.

BBC Gardening - Sunflower, Helianthus - Good list of names of both giant & smaller sunflowers along with a pollen-free variety, plus tips on sowing, growing & harvesting.

Sunflower Challenge - Archived UK kids' project with colorful, fun & kid-friendly instructions for starting sunflowers from seed plus growing instructions, arts & crafts projects, art gallery, recipes.

Growing a Sunflower House for Your Kids - Plenty of room in the backyard required for this fun project including illustrated plan, pictures, & instructions.

Sunflower Pictures - Stunning array from the BetterPhoto gallery with dozens of shots including field, portrait and extreme close-ups. Click on the thumbnails for larger images.

National Sunflower Association - Everything you always wanted to know about sunflowers including history, health & nutrition, FAQ, industry stats & research, news & updates, online magazine, and fun for kids with related downloadable coloring pages.

Sclerotinia Diseases of Sunflower - The most common sunflower disease explained in pictures and information on the "white mold" that infects roots, causing wilting & head rot, with tips on how to prevent it, preferred remedies.

also see in Garden Flowers -> Forget-Me-Not | Four O'Clocks

Impatiens | Marigolds | Morning Glory | Nasturtiums | Pansy

Petunias | Snapdragons | Verbena | Zinnia

also see in Gardening -> Kid's Gardening