sunflower growing competition

boo80

Can anyone tell me why the bottom leaves of some of my sunflowers have gone yellow? They seem to be going strong at the top, so I really hope I'm not going to lose them! They have (I think) 3 sets of leaves now, and are about 40 - 50 cm high (at a guess, I'm really bad at sizing things up!)

pinkcandyflossprincess

well ours have grown slightly to about an inch tall:rotfl:
im thinking if i bought one of those tree ferns it would grow quicker!!

I may have to go on holiday for 2 weeks as when you do that you normally come back to a jungle garden with flowers you cant even remember planting:eek:

mrbadexample

boo80 wrote: »

Can anyone tell me why the bottom leaves of some of my sunflowers have gone yellow? They seem to be going strong at the top, so I really hope I'm not going to lose them! They have (I think) 3 sets of leaves now, and are about 40 - 50 cm high (at a guess, I'm really bad at sizing things up!)

Are they in a pot? Time for a bigger one?

boo80

mrbadexample wrote: »

Are they in a pot? Time for a bigger one?

Nope, in the ground. The spacing between them is tighter then I'd normally do though as I normally lose at least half of them to slugs, but this year they all survived, every single one! Do you think that's the problem? There is a picture of them on my 'my garden before and after' thread, although not a great one! Thanks for your help. x x

Lotus-eater

They are a bit close, although I don't know much about sunflowers.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Thought I might hedge my bets (or my sunflowers) and stuck some Russian Giants around the garden - nothing scientific, I poked the soil with my finger and stuffed the seed in the ensuing hole Some are at the base of a south facing wall that gets most sun in the morning, due to the surrounding houses, some on a west facing and some shoved into a big plastic container thing with some maize and runner beans, covered with a sheet of glass salvaged from a defunct oven door and held up with the remains of a bookcase, all tucked in between the sweet pea pots, some carrot seedlings and the water butt.

I like to call my style of garden design 'Allotment Chic' :cool:

Jesthar

misskool wrote: »

I have dwarf sunflowers, is there a prize for most stunted growth?

A "wooden trowel" so to speak?

I got given six sunflower seeds, so count me in! Planted them today

What's the betting they don't do as well as the completely random one which appeared in my garden all on it's own last year and reached 6'2" without aid?

JodyBPM

I've got mine in the soil now:)

I've planted loads and loads in a bed, as I got carried away planting the seeds with my DD, and they pretty much all germinated! I hope they are not too close together! Apart from the 6 or so at the back of the bed which are giant yellows, all the rest are dwarf varieties, so hopefully won't need as much room. And as someone else said, the slugs may well get a few!

Good luck everyone!

Sessie

I'm in too.

I would have been well on the way as I planted 12 (the Gardener's World ones) two weeks ago. They were a couple of inches tall, with two good leaves on each, lookin' good....

However, my 3 year old daughter showed great interest in them and despite thinking I had watched her carefully, she still managed to get outside and pull nine of them out of the pots and screw them up in her hand. I was.... FURIOUS!!:mad:

Aaaaanyhow, went out for the day the next day and got home to find a packet of sunflower seeds on my kitchen worktop from my dad (who I had rung to vent about said toddler destruction). So now I have 40 ...yes 40!!! germinating in a propagator on the kitchen windowsill, together with another 12 in small pots, also on said windowsill.

Bit worried they'll all grow - where in heaven will I put them??? I might stand outside B&Q randomly handing out three foot sunflowers to people I like the look of!! :rotfl:

x

Lotus-eater

Sessie wrote: »

I'm in too.

I would have been well on the way as I planted 12 (the Gardener's World ones) two weeks ago. They were a couple of inches tall, with two good leaves on each, lookin' good....

However, my 3 year old daughter showed great interest in them and despite thinking I had watched her carefully, she still managed to get outside and pull nine of them out of the pots and screw them up in her hand. I was.... FURIOUS!!:mad:

Oh don't be furious. At least she's showing an interest. Kids will make mistakes at these things.
Tell her why it's wrong and give her her own seeds to sow. Tell her she can pull those ones out and screw them up if she likes, but the others are yours.


On a different subject, I'm sure some of you will be very relieved to know that mine has taken a knock back and is virtually out of the race. A frost has all but done for it, add to that, that most of the leaves have been ripped off by the wind and it's in a pretty poor state. It may survive, we'll have to see.