Natural History curator Patricia Francis provides her top tips for growing the perfect sunflower in this simple to follow growing guide.
Sow your seeds between March and May.
You will need:
- Put the compost in to your pot to about 2.5 cm from the top.
- Sow two seeds together in each pot.
- Cover the seeds lightly with 1 cm of compost.
- Firm gently.
- Write ‘sunflower’ on your lollipop stick and place it at the edge of your pot.
- Put your pots onto a tray – an old food container would be fine for this.
- Keep the compost moist, be very careful not to over water!
- Place on a windowsill but not in direct sunlight
- Look for the seedlings in showing in 14 to 21 days.
- Remove the weaker of the two seedlings in each pot.
- As your sunflower grows you will need to pot on into bigger containers or into your garden, if you have used a paper pot you can just plant the whole thing
- Choose a sunny place, sunflowers like the sun!
- Remember to keep watering!
- You can place a stick in the compost or soil alongside the stem to support your sunflower as it grows taller.
Expect flowers in June to September. After the flowers fade you will be left with a seed head full of seeds. Leave this as a feast for your garden birds!
Make sure you check out some other family-fun activities to get messy this Easter holiday. Visit our Spring Thing webpage for more suggestions of what to do.
