I have two sunflowers growing in my whiskey barrel planter along with nasturtiums and a petunia. They are growing and blooming their heads off. they are about 6 feet tall with multiple blooms. I do feed them a little with some miracle grow for blooms. I don't know their exact name because they came in an envelope of mixes type sunflowers. I say get a really big pot and give them a try!

I would use a half barrel. I have tried growing them in smaller containers and they never got very large.

If you want fullsize giant sunflowers then you do need a large container as mentioned above. If you don't mind smaller flowers, you can plant them in as little as a 1 gallon container.

I have planted them in 12" pots.
They grew 5-6 ft tall.

Just as an aside, I just saw a pic of some dwarf ones planted along the back of a rectangular fancy cement planter with something that is low with burgundy leaves and red blooms filling in the entire front (possibly a begonia, but the flower looks like impatiens). Anyways...the sunflowers were adorable planted like that!

luciecat, pray tell...what "different germination technique" did you do that sprouted the sunflowers from the weekend to Tuesday?? My 2-yr old granddaughter got so impatient waiting for hers to sprout I think she dug most of them up looking to see where they had gone! :)

Hello DaisyLover! Here's my method. I removed each seed completely from their seedcoats using a small wire cutter, but I suspect nail clippers would also work.

I made holes about 1" deep in small pots filled with moistened germination mix. I placed each seed "standing up" in the holes, sprinkled them with more mix to cover them, tamped down the soil and spritzed the tops with water. I kept them under growlights and bottom-watered. This was Saturday afternoon. By Tuesday night they had erupted from the soil. I could hardly believe my eyes! Those were Mammoth Hybrids. The temperature in the room varies between 70-85 degrees. Last night, flush from my success (LOL), I decided to try it again, with another type, Chianti Hybrid. I repeated the process but the holes were not as deep because the seeds were much smaller. So now I wait. It might have been a fluke. I'll know in a few days, one way or the other. I'd like to hear from anyone else about other seeds that can be germinated after removing them from the seedcoat, but perhaps that question is better asked on the seed-starting forum. Anyway, DaisyLover, that's it. Let's hope it wasn't a fluke. If you try it let me know how it works for you.

luciecat, that is fascinating....one of those things that makes your brain go hmmmmmmm....

I will have to dig out my seeds and give this a try. If this works my little granddaughter will be "so 'cited!" Thanks!

I've grown successfully grown a mammoth sunflower that got 8 feet high in a 12"x12"x16"(deep) container made out of wood lined milk crates. The only problem I had was that the lone sunflower had no support system and they when they got top heavy they started to lean.

This year I got lots of volunteers from last years crop and four popped up in a nice clump in one corner of a container which used to be a Rubbermaid 30 gallon tote bought for $3 at a Home Depot clearance sale. This container is also about 16 inches deep but the clump of four are all situated in a one square foot corner of the container. The sunflowers support each other in the clump and they are already 6 feet high and growing higher.

Here's a pic:
http://www.brandylion.com/images/sunflower-clump.jpg

The only problem I have with these are watering. They really use the water and frequently I need to do an emergency watering during the day when I see them wilt. I normally water in the evening but when this happens I make an exception.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:44184}}

Thanks to all for your suggestions. I think it should work out OK.

mea2214, I'm glad you reminded me about the water issue. I think I'll add some extra vermiculite to the mix in the pot and an extra layer of mulch on top of the soil. That should help.

Young sunflowers move their blooms to always face the sun over the course of a day... Starting East, ending West

Once sunflowers reach maturity, they stop tracking the sun and only face east.

This is called heliotropism.

Too funny on the facing east side of things... I just planted my first attempt at a few sunflowers a bit less than a month ago. This picture was taken facing East. So they will probably end up with the flowers facing the fence/street. And the three I planted in another place with the hopes the flowers would face west towards the street in front - well, those will probably also face the wrong way. Oh well, will make somebody else's day as they see the bright sunny flowers poking their heads above the fence while driving by.

The dwarf or mini sunflowers do great in containers. Johnny seeds has some nice varieties. http://www.johnnyseeds.com/search/?q=dwarf+sunflowers&lang=en_US

So Gthomson, then if you put them in large pots on wheels or a lazy Susan, once they stop following the sun you just spin them around to face into your yard. :-D