Summer with Sunflowers

Nothing says summer like a garden full of Helianthus

A pale yellow sunflower variety called “Lemon”

I like sunflowers for their height, variety of color and ability to draw bees and birds, so I usually start a bunch of different ones in early spring and scatter them about the acre. Then, right as summer starts to get into full swing, we’re rewarded with big blooms popping out of the ground everywhere.

Bi-color sunflower birds planted among some tomatoes

I also have what I call “the patch”, a typically dry area that once a year I toss a handful of black oil sunflower seeds and let them run wild. In the fall it’s so full of jays, woodpeckers, finches, mockingbirds, and others all chittering, squawking and tweeting at one another.

Sometimes the avian excitement is so great, it’s hard to hear anything else.

Here’s a small gallery of the sunflowers you might come across as you wander the Acre.

A young mammoth sunflower facing the sky

A pale yellow sunflower called “Lemon”

Earthwalker – multi-headed red/orange sunflower

The black oil sunflower patch – just for the wild birds

Autumn Beauty bi-color sunflower birds planted among some tomatoes

Moulin Rouge red sunflower

Russian Giant Gray Stripe Sunflower

Sonja multi-branching sunflower

Where to find the sunflowers in this post

• Autumn Beauty — red and yellow bi-color sunflower (Link: Pinetree Garden Seeds)
• Black Oil — yellow field sunflower (Link: Amazon or any bird seed retailer)
• Earthwalker — red/orange multi-stem sunflower (Link: Pinetree Garden Seeds)
• Giant Gray Stripe – Russian giant sunflower (Link: Pinetree Garden Seeds and many others)
• ProCut^® Lemon — creamy yellow sunflower (Link: Johnny’s Seeds)
• Mammoth — giant sunflower (Link: Ferry-Morse or any seed retailer)
• Moulin Rouge — multi-branching red sunflower (Link: Pinetree Garden Seeds as well as many others)
• Sonja — multi-branching yellow sunflower (Link: Johnny’s Seeds )