you start them in early spring when it is still frosting at night, but after it has warmed up a bit from winter,
sunflowers bring birds in that eat insects, they are good for me to eat, but I usually grow them for the birds
sunflowers started out with many seed heads in nature and have been bread by humans to have one big seed head, but older versions with many seed heads are still out there for sale
the multiple seed heads is also a sign of inbreeding depression, so make sure you grow enough of them to be able to save seeds from one year to the next.
they are an out crosser, so they will cross pollen with one1/4 mile away before using it's own pollen
if you are eating them, there are kinds that have big seeds and usually gray seed shells,
if you are making oil out of them (they make a good cooking oil ) grow the small seeded version with a black seed shell as you can press it for oil without removing the shells first.
pressing for oil is fast and works well,
but you can just mash them up some and boil them, and the oil will float to the top of the water and you can scoop it off with a spoon, it is low tech but lots more work.
the pretty peddles are now fading as they are pollinated already
they are just now having the seeds here
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