Maryl,

Several seed companies carry a variety of different sunflowers. One is Johnny's Selected Seeds. Notice that the linked page is one of three pages of sunflowers. There are 24 sunflower listings at Park Seed (also on three pages). There is also a good selection at Burpee. Harris Seeds is another place to shop for sunflower seeds. There are several other seed catalogs that have interesting sunflowers.

You might want to decide whether you need pollen free sunflowers or not. That could be a deciding factor. I wouldn't rule out the taller varieties because of your Oklahoma wind. You can plant tall sunflowers in a grove and they will protect each other from the wind and make a nice little magic forest for kids to play in.

ZM (not associated with any product or vendor mentioned)

Thank you Zenman for all the sources. Actually I'm putting together an order for Parks so needed something from them to round out my order when I thought about Sunflowers. We already have the birdseed type sprouting all over the place, so this one I wanted to be more of a decorative, possibly for cutting. Sorry but I don't know what you mean about pollen free or not. What's the difference?.....And if anyone has any variety they like in particular, I'd sure like to hear about it. What about the red color?....Maryl

I am pretty sure that the "red" sunflowers are more of a maroon-ish or burgundy color. I have never seen a true red sunflower, but that would be pretty neat! I

All of the "red" sunflowers I've grown have been either maroon or rust in color. I hear that they verge more on true red in cooler climates.

Pollen-free just means that the flowers produce no pollen, which makes them much less messy and allergenic as cut flowers. Pollen-free varieties should say so on the packet--or catalog!

Yachoo!!
Kevin : ])

Thanks Kevin. I realize color is in the eye of the beholder, but these plant vendors really do bend the truth about as far as it will go sometimes. There are people out there still looking for the blue rose for instance (only available in silk or plastic so far)......I like the no mess part on the pollen issue. Must be rather like lilies.