Hi Group,

What is the best time to plant sunflower seeds outside? Do I have to wait
until after last frost or can I plant them sooner, like when soil is
workable? I'm pretty far up north and still easily hit -5°C at night but
getting up into high teens during the day now... finally!!
Any suggestions appreciated.
--
Tammie
Zone 2b-3a Far Northern Ontario
http://community.webshots.com/user/_tammie57

What is the best time to plant sunflower seeds outside? Do I have to wait
until after last frost or can I plant them sooner, like when soil is
workable? I'm pretty far up north and still easily hit -5°C at night but
getting up into high teens during the day now... finally!!
Any suggestions appreciated.

I'm down in Zone 6, SW Ohio USA and our sunflowers started coming in a few
weeks ago. They were all "volunteers" though -- apparently the birds didn't
quite eat all the seeds in the feeders after all. We must have had a
million seedlings under the feeders. Chuckle FWIW, we ended up mowing
them down since it was kinda in the lawn, but a few were also dropped in my
planters under the tree so we'll probably transplant those. By the time
they started growing, temps were consistently above freezing every night
(although we've had a snap to a few degrees F below freezing, but not often
or by much).

James

Last summer was amazing here for sunflowers... and I didn't even plant most
of them! My little neighborhood chipmunk is an excellent gardener. I had
sunflowers over 7 feet tall last year, thanks to him. He did one be so
well, it was almost thick enough to be a 6 foot hedge! All with seeds from
the feeders. I had sunflowers all over the yard. Had to pick and choose
which ones stayed in the veggie garden though.
I'll probably plant my own seeds around the end of the month.
--
Tammie
Zone 2b-3a Far Northern Ontario
http://community.webshots.com/user/_tammie57





We tend to leave volunteers here, we had a ton of sunflowers last year, some
morning glories, and I didn't have to buy a single pumpkin thanks to the
squirrels ) I did pop a couple watermlon seeds in the yard for a surprise for
my 6 yo this weekend.
Colleen
Zone 5 Connecticut.