My ambition is to get a sunflower to grow in my garden.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Liz on February 1, 2008 at 23:15

I have tried every year. What am I doing wrong?

Permalink Reply by Alison P on February 2, 2008 at 12:26

I've not grown them since I was at school but would guess you need a lot of sun! So if you've a north facing garden would guess it would need to be at the far end (or in your front garden).

You're on Warham aren't you - a couple of years ago there was someone at the Wightman Rd end of your road (I'm sure it was Warham) who had sunflowers growing every which where in their back garden, even some planted by a tree in the pavement. It looked incredible seeing them peeking over the top of the fence.

Permalink Reply by alistairj on February 2, 2008 at 12:30

My neighbour has grown them in a north-facing garden seemingly with great success - however they get to a certain point and the squirrels devour them...!

Permalink Reply by Helen1 on February 2, 2008 at 12:33

Try planting lots of seeds in individual pots (yoghurt pots are fine) and nurture them with tlc before planting out. If you are lucky enough for lots to grow, then you can always weed them out. The rest is up to good or bad luck - you can't stop the strong winds or torrential rain.

Permalink Reply by Liz on February 3, 2008 at 19:25

Right, I'm determined to get at least one to grow this year. Watch this space!

Permalink Reply by Anette on February 7, 2008 at 22:27

I managed a few manky ones last year in a north facing garden. I planted LOADS, and ended up with abuout 5 sad ones. The slugs got the rest. And the bad summer did not help.
Liz, If I manage more this spring I'll give you some. :)

Permalink Reply by Liz on February 8, 2008 at 9:53

Yes please.
I'm also going to try and put some in little pots as Helen suggested as this might be a fun thing to do with my 4 year old.
I think the slugs do for me too. Think I'll start a discussion on pest control!

Permalink Reply by Helen1 on February 8, 2008 at 17:26

If you need to keep slugs off plants that are in pots, a smear of old vaseline just below the rim of the pots will do the trick. I even managed to grow hostas this way, and slugs love hostas. Not sure that it's a good idea to smear grease on sunflower stems though, so maybe a good layer of sand or grit on the ground around the stems instead, and keep the lower leaves high enough above the ground and away from the wall/fence, because slugs can climb.

I was making a mental list of flowering plants that are not affected by slugs and other local pests. I got as far as geraniums and cyclamen (neither of which needs a lot of attention). Any more suggestions?

Permalink Reply by Alison P on February 8, 2008 at 19:32

A few other suggestions for slug/snail proof plants on Liz's post about this ..

Permalink Reply by Anette on February 9, 2008 at 13:21

Helen, great idea, I'll try that.
Apparently sticking a ring of copper wire around the pot is meant to work as well, slugs hate the feeling of copper. I tried it with little success, but I think my copper wire was too thin. Maybe get a wide band from somewhere, and make a little fence around plants they especially like?

If anyone knows where to get wide copper bands, let me know, I think I light give it a go.

Permalink Reply by Hugh on February 9, 2008 at 13:37

At the cop shop? But I'm not sure how musical our local lot are. Check with Glyn.

Permalink Reply by Keir on February 9, 2008 at 23:41

What is the soil like where you're tring to grow the sunflowers? They need soil that is well drained, though you need to make sure they have plenty of water, and I find a good mulch works wonders as well - I use the leaves that fall off next-doors horse-chestnut tree.

The copper thing has worked for me in the past as far as slugs go. However, the snails don't seem to mind at all and once they've covered the copper in their slime the slugs just follow. I used thin but wide copper bands and cut nicks into it so that when it was round the plant I could bend sections to stick out; this seemed to be more effective than having it flush against the stems.

Luckily at the moment I have loads of frogs in the garden living in my compost heap, and they do a pretty good job at keeping the slugs under control. You can catch the slugs by burying a yoghurt pot in the garden so it's rim is level with the ground and placing a small amount of beer in it. Slugs are notorious alcoholics and will just fall right in and get stuck. Then you can do what you want with them.

Hope that's useful.

K

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