Sunflowers require little care other than regular watering and fertilizing. During the gardening season, you don't have to cut the pretty summer flowers at all, unless you want to pick a pretty bouquet for the living room.
Sunflowers are good cut flowers for the vase
Cut off faded flowers
By cutting off the faded flowers, you cannot stimulate the growth of single-stalked sunflowers. Therefore, refrain from cutting and let the seeds ripen in the flower heads.
This is especially useful if you want to harvest sunflower seeds for next year or birdseed for the winter.
To protect the seeds from the birds, you should pull permeable fabric over the flowers. Alternatively, the flowers can also be dried indoors.
Cut sunflowers in autumn
In the fall, most gardeners prune sunflowers altogether because the withered stalks with the sadly drooping flower heads are not a pretty sight.
Never pull the plant out completely, but leave the roots in the ground. They decompose there during the winter, loosening up the soil and enriching it with nutrients.
Therefore, cut the sunflowers just above the ground. A knife is often not enough for very thick and woody stems. Sometimes you have to use a pruning saw to cut the sunflowers.
Cut sunflowers for the vase
If you want to cut off a pretty bouquet of sunflowers for the vase, only choose flowers that are no longer completely closed, but also not completely open.
The best time of day to cut the sunflower blossoms is in the morning. Choose a day when it hasn't just rained.
To make the sunflowers last longer in the vase, cut them at the bottom. Dip the stems in boiling water for a few seconds before placing them in the vase.
- Remove lower leaves
- Cut stems
- Hold briefly in boiling water
- Place in lukewarm water
- change water daily
- Trim stems every two days
tips and tricks
As a bird lover, you should never cut off all the spent sunflower blossoms. There is hardly a better opportunity to experience the feathered garden dwellers approaching and picking out the seeds.