Sunflowers!

[NickK]

Planted ours in trays, moved to pots (which kept falling over) then into some big wood tub things.. Also have a large pot with meadow flowers in - planted late & yet to flower.

They're starting to reach 6+ foot.. Lots of flowers appearing, the wasps eat the aphids, the honey bees and the bumble bees love the flowers.

Have a solitary bee finish it's nest in the insect house too!

 

[LeeUK]

I grew some the height of the house back in '94 or '95 when I was a kid. Got photos somewhere but they'll need to be scanned.

 

[NickK]

Been cropping the seeds out of the old heads. It's amazing the variety of colours the seeds have - I even have purple and albino (and they're fully developed).
Simply wait until they're yellow/brown and scrape off the old dead flowers at the front. Then cut with 4" of stem, place on a windowsill so they dry out. The the seeds literally drop out. Put the seeds out on a flat surface to dry and then move to a cool spot.

They're still doing good - just a few caterpillars - nothing a a short move to the pond can't cure.

Seen lots of bees and bumble bees making good use of them, as it's late in the season it's possibly some of the last remaining blooms active. The meadow basket is also doing well - lots of blue flowers, yellow etc with happy bees. The down side is that the bees are having problems flying from time to time with so much pollen on their back legs lol.

 

[DXP55]

There is a field of sunflowers on A41 going to Chester.

Never seen them before in UK. - or not where I am anyway.