Sunflower

We are mostly familiar with an annual sunflower giving large black seeds. But now there is a lot of selection work in the world, and many decorative varieties of the most diverse color( except blue and white) have already been created, and there are not only annuals but perennials. These plants, in principle, are unpretentious to the conditions of growth. But they prefer well-drained soils without stagnation of water, ordinary garden lands with a neutral or weakly acid reaction, a solar location.

Perennial sunflowers - plants high( 100-200 cm), with strong straight stems, not requiring supports. Flower baskets have a diameter of up to 15 cm. There are semi-double and double forms, there are many-flowered species. The most popular varieties: Sunflower giant 200-300 cm tall with bright yellow and orange flowers( blooms in September);The sunflower is hard( there is a large-flowered form and terry) with a height of up to 150 cm, with orange-yellow flowers( blossoms in September);The sunflower is ten-leaved with numerous light-yellow flowers( blossoms in July-September).

All sunflowers look good in groups, in the background. They can decorate unsightly places on a site or separate an economic zone( a kitchen garden, an economic court yard) from a zone of rest or other part of a site. Can serve as a fence separating your site from the neighbor, but we must remember that the sunflowers turn the flower behind the sun, so plant them so that you see the flower, not its reverse side.

Sunflowers are drought-resistant. No care for these plants do not require. The easiest way is to propagate seeds that are sown in the spring in the spring. With a strong thickening of shoots, they should be cleaned or discarded.

The flowers of sunflowers, like all the Compositae, are cut off by the choir.

Sunflowers should be divided every two years. So they are propagated, in spring or in autumn. In the autumn, they are cut to the ground level, and in the spring they must mulch the soil under them.

It should be said that not only in the North-West, but even in the Non-Black Earth region, a perennial sunflower can freeze in winter even with not too much frost, so it needs shelter. But there is one type of sunflower - Jerusalem artichoke, which, despite its Mexican origin, easily hibernates without any cover, on the