Insurance by Day, Sunflower Seeds by Night

Every year, Bob and his wife Laurie grow sunflower patches in the field behind their house. Yep you read that correctly, Bob is a hobby sunflower farmer! With sunflower planting season approaching this month, we thought it would be a great time to share some tips from Bob’s experience growing sunflowers.

One of the best things about sunflowers seeds - they are very forgiving and can be planted any time from mid-May to the beginning of July. Bob recommends not planting them any later than the 4^th of July.

Depending on how many you would like to plant, if you stagger them every week, you’d have plants coming in bloom for a long time. You can also plant a variety of sunflower seeds, allowing them to bloom at different rates and giving you a summer of beauty.

While all sunflowers are beautiful, Bob likes to shop around for a variety of seeds. His favorite being the “giant multi heads” also known as helianthus giganteus. Other varieties he likes - helianthus paradoxus, Maximilian and the common sunflower.

Bob recommends reviewing the instructions on the back of the plant packet and plan accordingly.

At the end of the sunflower season, you can harvest seeds from the flower heads and dry them out for next year, use them as bird food, or to eat!