For the record, I did a search for ProCut Sunflowers on the Cutting Garden forum. There are 16 threads with information and opinions regarding growing these sunflowers last season. Appears the consensus was that 2005 was not a particularly good growing season for ProCut for the majority of growers. Sometimes one just has to trial some varieties; and, then one will have their own experiences on which to draw future decisions.

I've never grown single-stem sunflowers before, with the exception of a double that got such a huge flower, I couldn't use it. Looks like I will be testing a lot of single stems this year. I have read the posts re: ProCuts and am hoping it was just a bad season last year!

All of the ProCuts I've grown have performed very well. I've grown Lemon, Orange, Peach, and Bicolor, in other words, all that were available. didn't have the drought problems that plagued so many people last year, since I live in a climate where summer drought is NORMAL, therefore everybody here irrigates. Our summer was rather cold and wet, actually, but the ProCuts are pros and performed accordingly. I made the happy discovery that the peach ProCut branches, so you get two or three cuttings from it, unlike any other ProCut.

Jeanne

It isn't drought conditions that cause problems for growers of ProCut sunflowers. This variety is more suceptible to a fungal disease know as alternaria. This condition is found in humid regions. That would be us growers here in the Midwest. This would also explain why someone growing in a dry mountain region would not be experiencing it. This sunflower did not make the top ten list of sunflowers for the 2006 season due to the disease, petal dropping complaints in all except the orange, and vase life issues.

How awful! Is there any way to get around the disease, maybe a spray? Were the troubles with petal dropping and vase life due to the alternaria? I'm wondering mainly because those two problems didn't happen here.

Jeanne

Just wanted to mention that the ProCut Orange was not affected by the fungal disease, alternaria. It could possibly be that the newer varieties: lemon and peach have weaker genes; and, therefore are more susceptible to the disease.

Trish

Jennifer,
I did not have good luck with the peach and the lemon last year. They did not have the best vase life and they were the first to be eaten by the bugs. The orange and bi color did not have those problems.

We did have a dry hot year and maybe that was part of the problem. If you do go with the procut yellow, I'd suggest also choosing another sun so you don't have all of your eggs in one basket.

I know that Trish uses premier light yellow (I got it from harris) and I'm going to try that for the earlier work.

Patty

Correction:

We did grow Premier Light Yellow last season. There were too many problems with this sunflower. The first cutting was okay; but, then the petals had horrible brown streaks. I took a picture of them for the supplier. It sickens the heart to have to discard so many flowers. So, no, they did not make our list this year.

Just as Patty mentioned, we also liked the orange and bi-color.

FWIW in this month's issue of GFM, Pam and Frank Arnosky mentioned that the smaller novelty color sunflowers were hard to sell last year. Customers want the traditional sunflower. That is also what we were seeing here in our region.

Here's a photo of ProCut Bicolor. These were grown late in the season in one of our hoophouses. The other sunflower, I thought was Sunbright; but, DH said it's Sunny. He can tell by the leaves. I'm not sure. He's the Sunflower Guy; and, we both have "Post Season Amnesia." Anyway, they were also a late season crop..........
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Well, now you've gone and done it. I added procut bicolor to my list. Looked into premier light yellow, but could only find large quantities for sale. Looked like a nice one...

Trish, It that callicarpa with the red berries on it? Thanks.

And, you will be glad you added ProCut, Jennifer.

The red berries in the photo, Bryan, are Ilex verticillata, Winterberry. This grows in our lowland around the lake. It loves having its feet wet. It even doesn't mind when the lake level is high; and, it's in standing water. Makes for an interesting harvest though. Gotta watch for those sink holes.....

FWIW The sorghum in front of the winterberry and behind the sunflowers on the right is Hegari. Great in wreaths!!

Trish