Sunflowers of different colors

[Darth Slater]

Hello folks, Darth here..some of you might have an idea about how I can get some unusual sunflowers.
A while back i saw one that was actually BLUE and I forgot where it was, I was hoping to grow a bunch of different colors that aren't like anything available..just a thought, and this being a site that deals with everything i figured this would be the best place to ask.
Anything besides red and yellow would be cool.

[mnjrutherford]

Red sunflowers? Wow, ya got me! Blue would be incredible! We grew sunflowers for the first time this year. I seeded out a 5 lb bag of black oil seed that we had purchased as bird food. I'm hoping that they will reseed and become a part of the weed replacement process.

Do you have any idea what quality the blue type seeds would be?

And, not to change the subject, but do you have any advice on harvesting the seed?

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Jul 26, 2011 5:49:47 GMT -5 mnjrutherford said:

And, not to change the subject, but do you have any advice on harvesting the seed?

It's a nasty job, but somebody's gotta do it.

I shake dried heads into a bag and hang the bag to dry. But I only grow sunflower for decorative purposes so I only need a little bit of seed. They are very attractive to rodents, birds, and insects so I wouldn't consider them to be a viable staple crop in my garden unless I learned better techniques or had different processing tools.

[Darth Slater]

I just pick them out, it is labor intensive to say the least!!

[mnjrutherford]

hmmmm.... weeeelllllllllll.... I would really like it if they were to self seed all along our border with the farmer. I don't think I can expect that to happen for a couple of years at least.

I'm also interested in the fiber qualities as I understand it can be used for making paper. I'm also wondering about the possibility of making yarn/thread.

Can we grow sisal or jute in these here parts? Anybody got seed for such a thing?

[Joseph Lofthouse]

I grow sunflowers along the border with my landlady. I till them under in the fall. They definitely self seed! In the spring I till again a few times to narrow the bed, leaving only a 6" wide row of sunflowers un-tilled. No seed saving necessary. They are one of the first seeds that germinates in my garden in the spring. They get ahead of the weeds so I never weed them.

[12540dumont]

Darth, I grow a lot of flowers for my CSA. I used to work as a florist. To get blue sunflowers, we take the pale lemon color sunflowers and put blue food coloring in the water. Those big straw stems soak up the color.
I have brown, red, bi-color strawberry blonde, and lots of yellows.

I'd be happy to send you a bouquet of seeds. Every year I try and add another type to the mix. So far, there are no blue, or plain pink. The latest thing I've seen is Teddy Bear...a fluffy looking sunflowers.

I don't do hybrids or pollen-less seeds.

To do the seeds, I pick the big heads and put them face up for a week and then face down for a week in my sprout house. Then I put on sturdy gloves and crush them. Those I store for seeds for next year. I usually put away 2 quarts of seed. The rest I quarter and keep tossing in a feed bag. When the feed bag is full, I staple it closed and we keep these in drums. Organic sunflower seeds are going for $1.50 a pound here. AND THEY TAX THEM! *!*!## Bleeping bleep.

I feed them to the chickens till we run out. I border the entire farm with them, and throw them in anywhere I find a square foot that wasn't used for anything.

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[12540dumont]

Here the sunflowers are on the very edge of my farm, underneath them are vignas...Wild Seed, if you're out there, these are the same vigna's/India Mung Beans that I sent you. I keep planting sunflowers all the way till July. Usually I have a flock of Chickadees that come to eat them, so I leave them several and harvest the rest.

I have not been able to get pole beans to climb sunflowers. However, the beans I plant between them seem to hide from the vile voles that Steev sent here. Also, the elimination of all those stems takes a chipper shredder. This year instead of composting them, I'm planning on piling them on the chicken coop floor. (We'll see!)

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[seedywen]

Holly, your post has me curious about how you manage to grow different colored, size sunflowers and not have the various varieties naturally hybridize?

[steev]

I'm an escapee from the florist trade. Others of my generation not; four generations, but no more. Pop stood on that cold floor into his eighties. I remember dying carnations blue, but sunflowers weren't in florist's shops much when I was around them. I never put my hand to it, but I could build a funeral spray in my sleep, I watched so many made.

[Darth Slater]

Thank you dumont!! I would love some bicolor sunflowers, I saw one that was pink white and red and some called chocolate bicolors, i am aware of the dying of flowers but these were not dyed!
I just can't remember where i saw the link!!
Seeds were being sold crap!
I can shoot you my addy if you would like and i also have alot of different tomatoes so let me know if you need some!

Thanks, Darth

[blueadzuki]

Jul 26, 2011 14:33:14 GMT -5 mnjrutherford said:

I'm also interested in the fiber qualities as I understand it can be used for making paper. I'm also wondering about the possibility of making yarn/thread.

Can we grow sisal or jute in these here parts? Anybody got seed for such a thing?

I'd tend to say no both are highly tropical (Sisal is in fact a kind of agave and jute is in the same family as basswood). But if it's a fiber plant you want, I think I have a little seed of sun hemp (Crolataria juncea) lying around, if you'd want that www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/proceedings1996/v3-389.html.

[12540dumont]

Seedywen, I dunno. Every year I save a pile of seeds and replant them. Seems like they are always various, but nothing strange or vastly different as I think a hybrid would be. I've never really thought about it. Hmmm, gee now I have to think, ouch that hurts.

Darth, pm your address and I'll throw some in the mail.

MNJ, you can make paper from just about anything. We've made it from junk mail and tomatoes and water whirred in a blender and dried on a screen. (Hey, I still have your yarn...hee hee...I'll have a car again on Thursday). You might try flax or Kenaf or cotton. I have cotton seeds if you'd like.

Steev, second that cold wet floor at 4:30am and the trip the the flower mart in SF. Still love those flowers though...except for those sneezy things like achoo gardenias....I can make corsages in my sleep...

Boutonniere anyone?

[steev]

MNJ: Depending on your desired use, New Zealand flax, Phormium, might serve; it's a pretty long fiber and tough. Don't know how it would fare in your climate or what protection you'd need for it.

All things considered, I'd have to say I most preferred the flower shop run by my great-grandmother and her sister: pre-shlocky novelty vases, pre-gift/craft store, worn wooden floors, just a flower shop run by two widows, Grandma Madge ( Margretta ) and Aunt Till ( Matilda ) back when flowers came from fields around Lompoc and Gaviota or greenhouses around SF Bay.

[seedywen]

For some years, I only grew the Big Russian type sunflowers for harvesting the large seeds. When I introduced, multi-flowered sunflowers and some colored types the sunflowers crossed during the summer and the seed heads next year of the Russian types were way smaller. Over and over.

I've since read that natural hybridization is common with sunflowers. Now I save my own seed for flowers, and buy the large Sunflower types from professional growers. I'd love to have my own seeds both ornamental and eating varieties. Back to studying!