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Sunflower smiles: New collection offers more variety
0603SUNFLOWERS
Sunflowers are easily grown in the North Georgia area. The Sunflower Garden Seed Collection features five packs of seeds with a planting diagram and helpful booklet.

Sunflower tips

The plants need full sun, meaning at least 6-8 hours of direct sunlight daily.

The seeds should be planted ½-inch deep and watered daily until the plants are 8-12 inches tall

Mulch the plants heavily when they are 12 inches tall to prevent future weeding chores and to retain moisture.

Tall sunflowers benefit from a strong garden stake placed in the ground right next to the plant when it’s young. To keep the plants upright during wind and rain, use pieces of panty hose to secure the plant to the stake as it grows.

Enjoy the flowers in a bouquet or in the garden and watch them develop into heads full of sunflower seeds for the birds. Place a birdbath in your garden to provide a full-service, bird-watchers garden!

The birds also use the large sunflower leaves as an umbrella, giving feathered friends shelter from the sun and rain.

Daily Press

There’s nothing like a sunflower in your garden to make you smile.

And to bring bees and songbirds to your garden, making you smile even more!

Sunflowers are easy, fun plants for all ages. Youngsters laugh at their gigantic-growth habits. Seniors find them fascinating, possibly reminiscent of carefree childhood days.

Given a sunny spot, they are fairly easy to grow in the North Georgia area.

This month, Better Homes and Garden magazine features a sunflower seed collection that gives you the best of all the sunflowers you could want.

It’s the Sunflower Garden Seed Collection from The Gardener’s Workshop, an online gardening catalog for cut-flower seeds and herbs and gardening tools, based in southeastern Virginia.

"You can use the collection for a cutting garden or leave the blooms and watch the feast as the flowers turn into seed heads for the birds," says owner Lisa Ziegler.

The collection, which can be planted until early July in a 3-by-10-foot area, represents all the colors and sizes of the sunflower family.

Seeds in the collection include:

  • Sunflower Lemon Aura, 25 seeds, 60 inches tall.
  • Sunflower Moulin Rouge, 40 seeds, 80 inches tall.
  • Sunflower Sunbeam, 50 seeds, 72 inches tall.
  • Sunflower Sunbright, 50 seeds, 72 inches tall.
  • Sunflower Teddy Bear, 50 seeds, 30 inches tall.

The collection is $23; individual packs can be purchased, too.

The collection is $23 at www.shoptgw.com or 888-977-7159.