Sunflower (Helianthus annuus) Buddy Pack

Sunflowers have been cultivated for over 3,500 years and are a renowned food and companion plant.

SUNFLOWER

The large head of the bright yellow Sunflower (Helianthus annuus) nods to the east when it is mature. A very rugged plant sunflowers can be used to help filter grey water in organic waste systems and is very drought tolerant. Sunflowers are being used to process irradiated water at the Fukushima site. Down at ankle height, Alyssum does the opposite job, spreading a scented carpet that butterflies and small pollinators drift over. Ground cover of another sort comes in the Cerastium Buddy Pack, which pairs the flower with a crop and brings a silvery mat back each year, while your sunflowers bow out after one season.

Sunflowers attract many species of pollinator to their prolific and intricately patterned disc of small flowers. The sunflower head really isn't a flower, but a collection of one to two thousand tiny male and female self pollinating flowers with a bright yellow circumference of insect attracting petals. Once pollinated the tiny flowers metamorphose into the prized sunflower seed. Put the seed in once frosts have passed, give each plant full sun, deep soil and room to stretch, and this annual will stand head and shoulders above the rest of our flower seed collection. Sticking with the daisy family but on a far smaller scale, Marigold is packed as a Buddy Pack in exactly the same way.

The attractiveness of sunflowers means that they will lure species like aphids away from your prized plants. The hardiness of sunflowers means that they will stand up to a lot of insect attack because of their thick stalks and tough leaves. Better Sunflowers than cannabis! Sunflowers have been cultivated since at least 2000 BC for their seeds, oil, meal and foliage and for their ability to assist other plants when grown as a companion.

CONTENTS: 2.50 grams