We talked about gardening for birds previously, so let’s talk about a fan favorite for both birds and humans you may have forgotten – sunflowers.

The sunflower seeds most of us are familiar with are probably purchased during a road trip at a convenience store or perhaps as the main ingredient in bird seed. But you can grow your own sunflowers for both purposes.

When talking about sunflowers, we often talk about those big, beautiful flowers. But what appears as those striking yellow petals are actually large, colorful, protective leaves. The flowers are groupings of hundreds of tiny little flowers called florets and each of these tiny little florets produce a seed. This is why they produce so many seeds from each flower head.

It's easy to assume that the sunflower gets its name from those bright, yellow leaves, but it actually traces back to how the flower head tracks the sun as it moves through the sky during the day. The fancy word for this is heliotropism and this process of following the sun across the sky helps that giant plant gather as much energy as possible from the sun each day.

Since it looks like the cold weather is over with soil temps in the 60s, now is a good time to plant sunflower seeds. The first thing you will need to decide is whether you want the standard yellow sunflower or something different. As with most things now, sunflowers are available in a variety of colors.

When planting, you will want to plant your sunflower seeds in a location that gets full sun, planting the seeds about 6 inches apart at a depth of between 1 to 2 inches. Once they germinate, you’ll want to thin them to one plant about every 12 – 15 inches. If you have the space and want to plant multiple rows, space your rows about 2 to 3 feet apart. Other than that, they don’t need a lot of attention other than making sure they are watered. That being said, we planted a bunch of sunflowers at our Seed to Supper Farm last year in an area that didn’t get irrigated. They did great with no additional water or fertilizer. For us, that was mission accomplished.

Sometimes, sunflowers are considered a “trap crop.” This means that sunflowers tend to lure unwanted insects away from your vegetable crops. These unwanted insects would include stink bugs, aphids, and leaf-footed bugs. In addition, sunflowers attract birds which can also work on your behalf since birds like to dine on insects and their caterpillars.

While sunflowers can be susceptible to powdery mildew or rust disease, healthy plants fair pretty well. You can control these diseases if at the first indication of a problem, you treat the plants with organic pesticides such as copper fungicide or neem oil. If it’s hot outside at the time, it’s a good idea to do a test with the neem oil by spraying it on a small portion to see if it affects the plant. Horticultural oils, in general, can cause problems in the summer, so it’s always good to try it on a test area before treating the entire plant.

Seeds from your sunflowers should be harvested in the early fall. You can tell it’s time to harvest when the back side of the flower head changes from green to more of a brown. Also, the flower head stops tracking the sun.

To harvest, cut off the seed head (giant flower) and leave about a foot of stalk attached to the plant. Hang them in a warm, dry, well-ventilated spot for a few weeks. Once the seed heads are dry, you should be able to rub the seeds off with your gloved hand or by rubbing two of the seed heads together.

There are quite a few recipes for roasting sunflower seeds on the internet, or if you are feeding them to the birds, just place them in the feeder and watch the feeding frenzy begin. Good luck.

You can get answers to all your gardening questions by calling the Tulsa Master Gardeners Help Line at 918-746-3701, dropping by our Diagnostic Center at 4116 E. 15th Street, or by emailing us at mg@tulsamastergardeners.org. Photo: Tom Ingram