Summertime Symbol The Sunflower Is A Bright And Beautiful Addition To Your Garden Or Inside Your Home

With its broad, brown face and mane of yellow petals, the common sunflower (Helianthus annuus) is an American classic. Whether in the garden stretching toward the sun, or indoors as a centerpiece, it is the ultimate symbol of summer: cheerful and informal, bright and beautiful.

The familiar common sunflower is a beauty, but there are many other varieties that are fun to grow and display. Blooms can range in size from just a few inches to a foot wide, and in color from ivory to bright yellow to sunset tones of gold, orange and deep red.

Here are some wonderful varieties to look for in seed catalogs and at nurseries:

“Orange Sun”: This double sunflower has a marigold-colored, powder-puff-shaped bloom. Stems reach 3-1/2 feet.

“Italian White”: The elegant 4-inch blooms on this are as white as a sunflower gets, varying from ivory to the palest yellow, with a chocolate-brown center that has a yellow ring around it. The 4-foot plant branches nicely, producing lots of flowers over several weeks.

“Teddy Bear”: Just 3 feet tall, this unusual sunflower yields 5-inch blossoms that are so full and fluffy, they look more like chrysanthemums than sunflowers.

“Valentine”: The bushy plants with lots of blooms reach about 5 feet; the lemon-colored flowers have dark-brown centers. This is an award-winning variety developed for cutting.

“Autumn Beauty Mix”: This seed mix produces bright tones ranging from gold to copper to reddish purple. The single flowers are up to 8 inches wide; the stems are from 5-1/2 to 8 feet tall.

“Music Box Mix”: This dwarf sunflower mix features 4- to 5-inch flowers atop 28-inch stems. Colors vary from pale yellow to deep red. Pollen-free varieties are ideal for cutting for arrangements, since there’s no messy pollen.

“Sunbeam”: Featuring a green center with golden petals, the plant grows to 5 feet, with 5-inch flowers.

“Sunrich Lemon”: This plant, which grows 4 to 6 feet tall, yields heavy blossoms with dark-brown centers and pale-yellow petals.

Growing sunflowers

Whatever the variety, sunflowers are quick-growing, undemanding plants. They need full sun and prefer well-drained soil.

After the last frost date in your area, plant the seeds an inch below the surface of the soil, spacing them according to the package directions for the variety. Water the bed. You may want to cover it with nylon bird netting to prevent animals from digging up the seeds; weight the netting to keep it in place, and remove it once the seeds have germinated.

Or you can start the seeds inside in individual peat pots two weeks before the set-out date.

The plants will shoot up rapidly, but don’t expect to see blooms until July to mid-September, depending on the variety and your region.

Sunflowers are resistant to drought, but they should be watered regularly, especially during a dry summer.

Here are two good mail-order sources for sunflower-seed varieties. Free catalogs are available from both:

Stokes Seeds (Box 548, Buffalo, NY 14240; (716) 695-6980) The Cook’s Garden (P.O. Box 535, Londonderry, VT 05148; (800) 457-9703)

Arranging sunflowers

If you grow sunflowers, plant some just for cutting.

If you’re not a gardener, you can buy sunflowers from your local florist. With their growing popularity, they are increasingly available.

Sunflowers are best in informal arrangements. Cut their stems and remove any leaves that would be under water in the container. Mass the flowers in a big pitcher, flower bucket or sturdy vase. Or place individual stems in a collection of bottles of different shapes and sizes.

Sunflower trivia

The sunflower originated in America’s prairie states.

Native Americans used sunflower meal to make bread; archaeologists found the charred remains of sunflower seeds dating back to the year 800 in Indian dwellings.

In 1903, the sunflower became the state flower of Kansas, where the golden blossoms grow abundantly in fields and along roads.

In Victorian times, the sunflower was a motif for the Aesthetic Movement, a reaction against the Industrial Age. The flower’s simple, bold image was carved into chair backs, glazed onto vases and emblazoned on iron railings. Today, it is still a powerful emblem, appearing on products such as pottery, gift wrap, fabric and greeting cards.

Each sunflower is actually made up of two kinds of flower, called disks and rays. Disks are clustered together in the soft center; rays are what we think of as petals.

According to an old Mormon legend, when the first members left Missouri in the 1830s in search of a place where they could worship freely, they left a trail of sunflower seeds behind them. The following summer, the next group followed the trail of flowers to Utah.

The Jerusalem artichoke, a vegetable with brown skin and sweet, crunchy flesh, is actually a kind of sunflower: Helianthus tuberosus. Its unusual name comes from the Italian word for sunflower, “girasole,” which sounds a bit like “Jerusalem” but means “turns to the sun.”

MEMO: Questions should be addressed to Martha Stewart, care of The New York Times Syndication Sales Corp., 122 E. 42nd St., New York, N.Y. 10168. Questions may also be sent to Stewart by electronic mail. Her address is: mstewart@marthastewart.com.

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