Sunflowers are a must-have for my garden every single year. For years now, without fail, I’ve planted sunflowers that tower over all of my plants and produce large, beautiful flowers. It’s not just their beauty that compels me to add them to my garden. They’re very good for local pollinators, providing an excellent food source for them, and their seeds are easy to store. One of my favorite varieties are chocolate cherry sunflowers.
If you picture a sunflower, you probably see large, yellow and orange sun-like flowers. But sunflowers come in lots of different colors, including a deep chocolate cherry color.
What are chocolate cherry sunflowers?
Fast facts about these flowers:
- Plant height: 7 feet
- Color: dark, burgundy, brown
- Bloom period: 4 weeks
- Time to maturity: 60 days
Chocolate cherry sunflowers are an excellent addition to your garden if you want to infuse a darker, burgundy color amidst the other flowers you’ve planted. They are a tall variety of sunflower, likely growing to be taller than the average person. They are ideal for the borders of gardens, where they don’t be in the way of other plants.
How to grow chocolate cherry sunflowers
Chocolate cherry sunflowers can be directly seeded into the ground after the last danger of frost or transplanted when the danger of frost has passed.
General planting information:
- Planting depth: 1/2 inch
- Plant spacing: 6 inches
- Row spacing: 2 feet
- Watering: Damp soil, not soggy
- Days to maturity: 60
- Flowering period: 30 days
- Seed harvesting: after flowers die back
When to harvest sunflower seeds
Harvesting sunflower seeds is an easy and straight forward process. Your sunflowers will flower for about 4 weeks and then begin to die back. Once the flowers have begun to die, the seeds can be harvested. Gently scoop the seeds from the flower and store in a cool dry place. These seeds can be used to propagate new sunflowers next year.
