hey max,

i grew "the joker" last year and even tho my soil was not well prepared, it did fine. i was able to get lots of cuts from each stalk. it's an f1 hybrid. i also tried soroya and peach passion but neither did as well. but as i mentioned, they were all planted in a poor spot.

cheers!

bill

For cut flowers it's probably best to use the pollen-less hybrids. My customers generally report a vase life of at least a week and usually more.

I've tried quite a few and the two that I've stuck with are the ProCuts and Sunrich series. These are both single-stemmed varieties.

Good luck to you.

ThinMan

I've tried many varities of sunflowers, most did OK, but my favorite now is Golden Cheer . . . a fantastic double flower on long stems. And they are prolific.

They hold up better than many of the "petal" types that are fragile with petals falling off.

I get $2 a stem at my Farmers' Market.

I agree that "florists" sunflowers like the ProCut series are excellent. Also make sure that you cut them before they have fully opened - easier transport and they last longer.

As anyone grown the "Amit" sunflower? I'm looking for another double sunflower to compliment Golden Cheer.

I'm surprised that you like the single stem sunflowers. Do you plant them really close together in order to get plenty of cuts? I usually choose flowers based on how many cuts I can get from one plant.

Martha

Unless one has lots of land to devote to single stem sunflowers growing the branching types are probably better for small plots.

Another thing to remember about single-stem sunflowers are they tend to mature at the same time . . . which is fine if you can sell them at the same time. But for small-time growers the branching types may be the best choice, because you'll get production for a longer time as opposed to a one-time cutting with single stems.

I, and my customers, love the sunrich sunflowers. I have space to plant single stem varieties and I plant them weekly for a weekly harvest.

I don't have a branching one I love yet. Every year I try out some more but I just haven't found one that gives me long, strong stems and that last as long as the single stem sunrich. I do grow Claret, Moulin Rouge, and Soraya regularly. I have been getting good stems on the Soraya but they do shed pollen and most of my customers prefer a pollen-less variety.

I sold flowers at my local farmers market last year and I had good luck with Panache Sunflower. It was really awesome. Has several flowers and lasts in the vase. I may charge a $1.50 this year for flowers-2018

I buy a lot of sunflowers from Johnny’s too but they don’t offer Panache which is my favorite