Harvest Your Own Sunflower Seeds
Every sunflower head is a buffet—here’s how to harvest its seeds.
Humans aren’t the only ones who like to eat sunflowers; Helianthus is one of the best genera for wildlife. Birds (like the black-capped chickadee here) are mad for the seeds, butterflies and other insects are drawn to the nectar, and honeybees nosh on the pollen. Photo by: Marie Read.
If you want to harvest sunflower seeds to snack on (or to feed the birds with later), plant larger varieties of Helianthus annuus (annual sunflower) since they have the biggest seeds. Good choices are ‘Russian Mammoth’, ‘Sunzilla’, and ‘Heirloom Titan’, sometimes towering more than 10 feet tall with seed heads a foot or more across. (Note: In order for pollen-free Helianthus annuus varieties to form seeds for wildlife, you also need to plant types of sunflowers that produce pollen.)
Harvesting your own seeds is simple:
- When flower heads start to dry and turn to face the ground and seeds are plump and ripe, cut off flower heads with a 2-foot section of the stem attached.
- Tie cheesecloth over the heads and hang them upside-down in a garage or garden shed to finish drying.
If you’re just planning on letting birds feast on the seeds, you can leave the seed heads on the plants for the birds to eat. Another option is to cut the drying ripe seed heads and hang them upside down on a fence to give birds easier access.
Seed Sources:
Russian Mammoth
Seed Savers Exchange
Burpee
Sunzilla
Renee’s Garden
Heirloom Titan
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
Renee’s Garden
This bonus content accompanies “You Are My Sunshine”—an article that showcases the range of colors and forms of sunflowers now available to brighten summer beds, borders, and containers—in the Summer 2018 issue of Garden Design magazine.
