How long do sunflowers take to grow? Sow seeds ‘every couple of weeks’ for summer blooms

Sunflower growing competitions are a great way to get the family engaged with gardening, but if you want to have sunflowers blooming all summer long, you might have to sow more than one batch of flowers. There are numerous varieties of sunflowers to choose from, with petal colours ranging from rusty red to white, but the sunshine yellow ones are undoubtedly the most popular.

How to grow sunflowers

To give your sunflower the best chance of growth, you want to pick a spot in your garden that gets plenty of sunshine and has nutrient-rich soil.

Give the area an added boost by packing in plenty of well-rotted manure or garden compost before planting, if you can.

In the early stages of growth, sunflowers will need a daily watering routine.

This may be eased off as they get bigger, though this depends on how much rainfall your local region is getting and how hot temperatures are.

According to Pamela Anne, a sunflower growing expert from She Said Sunflower, plants need “a minimum of two gallons a week”.

She advised watering plants early in the morning before the sun has had a chance to directly hit them.

If the day has been a particularly hot day, a secondary watering in the early evening can also do them a world of good.