Sunflower ?s

[Jared77]

Anybody have any problems with putting sunflowers in their garden? And by problems I mean do they attract any unwanted visitors like corn does (meaning coons, deer etc?) Ive got a very large garden and thought to line the one end with them to give the garden even more visual appeal.

Just had that thought today. Ive never grown sunflowers before so I wasn't sure if they'd cause an issue.

Thank you!

 

[vfem]

I have scores of birds on the heads ripping the seeds out when they are drying. Doesn't bother me since I was saving the seed for the birds anyways!

 

[journey11]

I see a lot of gardeners that do plant sunflowers in with the veggies, so any problems are likely minor. The only things that I've seen come for the seeds are the birds and occasionally a mouse. But this is pretty late in the season by the time they have seeds. There are some other plants that do not neighbor well with sunflowers, and that you will probably want to consider. There's a topic on that here somewhere....

 

[wifezilla]

Well the evil squirrels come for them...but they come to destroy regardless.

 

[Greenthumb18]

Well the evil squirrels come for them...but they come to destroy regardless.

Yep I can agree with wifezilla. They ate my sunflowers last year as well. Those squirrels will destroy just about everything . If their was a plant they didn't like I'd plant it everywhere .

 

[Jared77]

Thanks for the fast replies. They'd be planted purely for decoration to give some color to the large bed. Its not far off the driveway (we have a LOOONG driveway) and thought it might give it a visual boost since I don't have any pretty fencing or anything else to really jazz it up.

Do they need to be directly sown or is it worth starting them earlier and transplanting?

 

[Mattemma]

I had problems with squirrels.

I planted sunflowers in a row along my driveway.They were looking great. One day I came home to all the heads tore off. I planted ornamental grass in its place,and planted sunflowers in my backyard where the dogs can get the squirrels!

I got seedlings from my mom and planted those along the driveway. Squirrels would often dig up my seeds.In the back I do seeds and transplants. The sunflowers handle transplanting well.

Before the squirrels got them;

https://picasaweb.google.com/mattemma06/September2007FrontYard#5157616045450819522

 

[Jared77]

Those are really pretty thank you for the info and the picture. The area Id be putting them can be accessed by my dogs and is always patrolled by the barn cats.

 

[SweetMissDaisy]

The only thing I really noticed about the sunflowers I planted last year was that they really attracted STINK BUGS! Some days, the "faces" of some of the sunflowers would be COVERED with the bugs! Of course, I never saw stink bugs on any of the other plants ... maybe it is a good thing they liked the sunflowers so much!?