7

I’m not particularly green fingered, however I’ve planted some sunflowers seeds with my kids.

They’re both growing well however one of them has a single large flower at the top of the stem whereas the the other has a large flower at the top of the stem as well as lost of smaller flowers growing out from in between the leaves.

Both sunflowers can from seeds in the same packet so it seems a bit odd. Is this normal or have I got a mutant sunflower?

sunflower

Conor
  • 336
  • 1
  • 4
  • 13
  • I also have a plant with multi flower buds,that my granddaughter planted from a packet of bird seed, all the others (6) are singular. – Patricia Millward Aug 07 '21 at 17:21
  • Cross pollination by our tiny friends. I also have single bloom flowers and 1 with many blooms. Looks neat, take pictures. :) – Living Magic Aug 10 '22 at 15:46

3 Answers3

4

Some varieties of Helianthus have multiple heads, like the variety Valentine for example. I don't know what variety you have there and where the seeds came from. They look more like a giant kind of variety (American giant?). Since they come from the same package (your one headed and your multiple headed plant), it could be that your multi head is a hybrid with another variety that has multiple heads. Accidental hybrid if you bought seeds from a professional breeder, maybe cross pollinated by another variety that was growing near by.

You can try to cut off the buds, and keep only one of the larger ones, and hope all energy will go into that one (no guarantees). Or just enjoy the multiple flowers it will produce!

benn
  • 13,023
  • 2
  • 18
  • 39
  • Thanks for that, not really fussed that's it's got extra flowers. Just thought it looked a little odd – Conor Jul 16 '20 at 21:00
3

It's normal for many kinds of sunflowers. It's not normal for others (such as Mammoth Gray Stripe). However, as benn pointed out, it could be the result of cross-pollination (that's my guess, if you have some of both types from the same packet).

We had a cross between Mammoth Gray Stripe and a smaller sunflower before, and the first generation was like that. The subsequent generations were pretty much all like the smaller flowered parent of the cross.

Brōtsyorfuzthrāx
  • 17,794
  • 4
  • 27
  • 65
1

Yes I have one russian Mammoth that has 15 sunflower heads and there all about the same size heads yes I think it's strange but I agree there cross with another sunflower that's how this happens but the sunflower is really cool how it looks with all the flowers bees are happy and it's growing in my watermelon patch so win win situation

Blooper guy
  • 11
  • 1