One of my ‘Russian Giant’ sunflowers is flowering like the clappers at the moment. Not content with being about 13ft high, it has produced about 13 flowerheads. The apical (main) flowerhead was dinner-plate sized, but about four or five feet down the trunk, there are auxiliary flowers coming into bud as well.
I never intended to grow such huge sunflowers this year. When I was a child, of course, we grew giants in our garden, but sometimes real giants produce quite ugly flowerheads with wimpy petals and huge faces. So this year, I fed the plants once or twice with comfrey tea, staked them, and left them to their own devices.
But with so many flower buds, I can afford to snip a few off before they start to open, fry gently in butter for a few minutes and eat like globe artichokes. You can also pickle the buds.
At the end of the season, cut the sunflowers down and use the rich stems for compost, or to create habitats for hibernating winter insects. Pick enough of the seeds from the heads to sow next year, and leave the rest to dry. Then, when the lean winter months turn up, you can put these delicious treats out for blue tits and other hungry birds.
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