Germination | Seedling |

Photosynthesis is the process by which plants make their own food, harnessing the energy in sunlight to fuse water (absorbed from the soil) and carbon dioxide (absorbed from the air) to create simple sugars.

The transfer of pollen grains from a male anther to a female stigma, either within the same flower or between two different flowers. It’s usually followed by fertilisation and seed production. Some flowers are pollinated by insects or other small creatures, others are wind pollinated. It’s also possible to pollinate flowers by hand, if you want to breed new plants or ensure successful pollination when there are few natural pollinators.

Pollination

Leave the flower head on the stem for at least two weeks. Once the petals have faded, cut the flower heads off and store them in a sunny, warm, dry place for another week. Spread a sheet of newspaper on a flat surface, gently rub the seed head and the seeds will fall away easily.

Collect them in an envelope or paper bag and store in a cool, dry and dark place until spring when they will be ready to sow and grow once more.

Sunflowers are known as being ‘happy’ flowers and make the perfect gift to bring joy to someone’s day.

The name ‘sunflower’ is a direct translation from the botanical name Helianthus annuus. ‘Heli’ meaning sun and ‘anther’ meaning flower.

As soon as the flower forms and opens, you can watch it turn. Growing in this way, following the path of the sun across the sky is called phototropism or heliotropism. In fact, the Italian word for sunflower ‘girasole’ literally means turning sun.

Once the flower has faded the sunflower head will have lots of seeds in the centre and these are a great source of food for birds, alternatively you can harvest the seeds and grow them again next year.

If you live in a region that gets lots of dry and sunny weather, you can sow sunflower seeds directly in the ground in spring, as soon as the risk of frost has passed.

• Choose a sunny spot and get the soil ready by digging it over, removing weeds and raking to get a fine soil texture (a bit like crumble topping)
• Make 2cm holes, 30cm apart and drop a seed in each. Cover them up and give plenty of water.
• Watch out for slugs as soon as your
  A seedling is a young plant grown from seed.

  seedlings appear
• When they reach 30-45cm in height, put a layer of organic matter around, but not touching, the stems to a depth of 10cm
• Support the stem as it gets taller by tying it to a cane
• Keep watering regularly

Not just a pretty face

Sunflowers don’t just look pretty, you can eat them too. Add petals and young leaves to brighten up salads and seeds can be roasted or eaten raw as a healthy snack.

Use sunflower petals and seeds in creams to relieve dry and itchy skins. Sunflower oil is a great source of vitamin E and helps to keep skin moist.

More for your money

Each sunflower is made of thousands of tiny flowers. The yellow petals that you see around the head are called ‘ray flowers’ – like the rays of the sun.

Reach for the sky!

The British record for the tallest sunflower stands at just under 8m. Its flowers opened up alongside the television aerial on a terraced house in Wigan in 2014. Record holder Richard Hope took more than 30 years to develop his own champion sunflower by selecting seeds from his tallest plants each year.

• Feed with a balanced fertiliser once a week*
• If you prefer many smaller flowers per stem instead of a large single flower, cut off the growing tip when the plant has reached 1m tall. This will encourage side shoots and branching stems. Each branch will form a number of smaller flowers

*Fertilisers contain concentrated sources of plant nutrients. All fertilisers should quote their N:P:K ratio (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) on the product packaging. A ratio of 7:7:7 indicates a balanced fertiliser (Growmore in this example).