Growing Sunflowers with Children

If you grow just one thing with a child this year, make it a sunflower. The seeds are big enough for small fingers to handle, they pop up fast, and by the end of summer the plant can be taller than the child who sowed it. There is no quicker way to turn a slightly sceptical little gardener into a proud one.

Sunflowers are also wonderfully forgiving. Pop a seed in a pot or a sunny patch of soil, keep it watered, and most of the time it simply gets on with growing. That makes them a perfect first project — and a lovely follow-on once you've worked through the simpler windowsill activities over on our getting kids growing guide.

Choosing varieties

Half the fun is picking which sunflower to grow, and there are far more than the one giant yellow flower most of us picture. Let the child have a say — they'll care more about a plant they chose themselves.

For a height contest, grow a giant. Varieties like 'Russian Giant' (sometimes sold as 'Giant Single') and 'Mongolian Giant' are the ones to beat. In a warm, sheltered UK summer they can reach 2–3 metres, with a single dinner-plate-sized flower nodding at the top. These are the classic, sow-it-and-stare varieties, and the ones that produce the most seed for the birds later.

For lots of flowers to cut and bring indoors, choose a multi-headed type such as 'Velvet Queen' (a deep rusty red), 'Autumn Beauty' (a mix of golds, oranges and bronzes) or the pollen-free 'Sunny Smile'. These branch and produce many smaller blooms over several weeks, so there are always a few to snip for a jam-jar vase on the kitchen table.

For pots, windowsills and small gardens, dwarf varieties stay under a metre. 'Teddy Bear' makes fluffy, double pompom flowers that children adore, while 'Little Dorrit' and 'Sunspot' give a proper big sunflower face on a short, sturdy plant. These are ideal if you're short on space — the same thinking applies to all our container growing projects.

When and how to sow

Sunflowers are quick from seed, so you don't need to start them very early. There are two easy routes, and either works well with children.

Indoors from April. Fill small pots or yoghurt pots (with a drainage hole) with peat-free compost, and push one seed about 2cm deep into each. Water gently, pop them on a warm, bright windowsill, and keep the compost just moist. They usually germinate within a week or two — that first looped green shoot pushing up is always a thrilling moment for a child. Once they're a few centimetres tall and the frosts have passed, harden them off and plant them out.

Direct outdoors from mid-May. Once the soil has warmed and frost is behind you, children can sow the seeds straight where they're to grow. Choose the sunniest spot you have, rake the soil to a crumbly texture, and sow seeds 2cm deep and about 10cm apart. Water them in. If you want to be sure of timing for your part of the UK, our planting calendar will line the months up for you.

A handy trick with young children is to sow a few spares in pots as back-up. Slugs and pigeons love a fresh sunflower seedling, so having reserves means a nibbled one can be quietly replaced without tears.

Growing them on

Once they're up and away, sunflowers ask for very little — but a few simple jobs make all the difference between a stumpy plant and a record-breaker.

Give them full sun. The clue is in the name. Sunflowers want the brightest, warmest spot you have. In shade they grow thin, pale and leaning, so don't tuck them behind the shed.

Water well, especially in dry spells. Those big plants drink a lot, particularly the giants and anything in a pot. A good soak every couple of days in a hot, dry July beats a daily splash. Letting a child take charge of the watering can gives them a real sense of ownership.

Stake the tall ones. A 2-metre plant carrying a heavy flower head is top-heavy, and a summer gust can snap it. Push a sturdy bamboo cane in beside each giant when it reaches knee height, and tie the stem to it loosely with soft string as it grows. Re-tie higher every few weeks — a nice recurring job for a child to feel in charge of.

Protect young seedlings from slugs and snails. This is the single biggest cause of sunflower disappointment in UK gardens. Slugs can graze a seedling to a stump overnight. A barrier of crushed eggshell or wool pellets, a beer trap, or simply going out with a torch on a damp evening all help. Starting plants a little larger in pots, then planting them out once they're past the tender stage, gives them a fighting head start.

That handful of jobs — sun, water, support, slug patrol — is genuinely all there is to it. Sunflowers are among the easiest crops for beginners for exactly this reason.

The tallest-sunflower contest

Here's where sunflowers really earn their place in a child's summer. Because the giants shoot up so visibly, they're made for a height contest — against a sibling, a friend, a cousin down the road, or simply against the child themselves.

Sow two or three plants and let each person, or each child, adopt one. Once a week, get the tape measure out, measure from soil to the top of the plant, and mark the height. You can:

• Tie a coloured ribbon or wool around the cane at each week's height, building up a striped record of how fast it climbed.
• Keep a simple chart on the fridge, with a column for each plant and a row for each week.
• Stand the child next to their plant for a photo every week, so they can see the moment the sunflower overtakes them.

The "taller than me" milestone is the one children remember for years. And measuring something that changes this fast is a lovely, sneaky bit of real-world maths and observation, dressed up as a game. If the weather is kind, a giant can put on more than a hand's width of height a week at its peak.

Once you've explained how it all works and the contest is underway, this is the point to think about seed. If you'd rather not save seed from a flower head, packets of giant varieties are easy to find for next year.

Sunflowers and wildlife

A sunflower isn't just a treat for children — it's a generous plant for the whole garden, from bees in summer to birds in autumn.

When the flowers open, watch the centre closely on a warm day and you'll see bees, hoverflies and other insects working their way across it. That broad, flat face is one big landing pad, packed with tiny individual florets full of pollen and nectar. As the insects move from flower to flower they carry pollen with them, which is how pollination happens — the step that lets the plant set seed. It's a brilliant, visible way to show a child what pollinators actually do, and why we want them in the garden. (If you're growing flowers mainly to feed the bees, our guide to pollinator plants has plenty more ideas to grow alongside.)

Then, when summer fades and the petals drop, resist the urge to tidy up. A spent sunflower head is a packed larder of seed, and as autumn comes you'll see finches, tits and other garden birds clinging to it and pecking the seeds straight out. Leaving the heads standing through autumn is one of the kindest, laziest things you can do for wildlife — no work required. Pair it with a proper feeding station from our bird feeders guide and you'll have a busy, well-fed garden well into the colder months. It all ties neatly into a broader wildlife-friendly garden.

Saving seeds to roast or resow

If you'd rather harvest the seed yourself — to sow next year, or to roast for a snack — you can. It's a satisfying final chapter to the project, and a good lesson in where seeds actually come from.

Wait until the flower head has finished, the petals have dropped, and the back of the head has turned from green to yellowish-brown. The seeds in the centre should look plump and fully formed, often striped grey and white or black. At this point you can cut the head off with a length of stem attached.

If birds are getting to the seed before you, slip a paper bag (not plastic, which traps damp) loosely over the head and tie it round the stem, or cut the head early and dry it indoors. Hang it somewhere airy and dry — a shed, a porch, or a sunny windowsill — for a week or two until the seeds loosen.

To remove the seeds, simply rub two heads together over a bowl, or brush a hand across the face of the head and watch them tumble out. Let children do this bit; it's messy and brilliant.

• To resow next year: spread the seeds out to dry fully for a few more days, then store them in a labelled paper envelope somewhere cool and dry. Keep the biggest, plumpest seeds — they tend to grow the strongest plants.
• To roast and eat: rinse the seeds, soak them overnight in salted water if you like, pat dry, then spread on a tray and roast in a moderate oven for 20–30 minutes until lightly golden, shaking now and then. These are a proper grown-and-eaten reward — and far tastier knowing the child grew them. Do remember to wash any home-saved seed well before eating, and only eat seed from your own clearly identified plants.

And that's the magic of growing sunflowers with children: a single fistful of seed in spring becomes a towering flower in summer, a feast for the bees, a contest to be proud of, and a handful of new seeds to start it all over again. When you're ready for the next project, head back to the kids hub for more easy wins to grow together — from strawberries to a homemade bean teepee den.