Sunflowers require little care other than regular watering and fertilizing. During the gardening season, you don't have to cut the pretty summer flowers at all, unless you want to pick a pretty bouquet for the living room.
When and how should you cut sunflowers?
Sunflowers do not need to be cut during the gardening season unless for a bouquet. Withered flowers can be left for seeds or bird seed. In autumn, the stems should be cut just above the ground, but the roots should be left in the ground.
Cut off spent flowers
You cannot stimulate the growth of single-stemmed sunflowers by cutting off the spent flowers. Therefore, avoid cutting and let the seeds ripen in the flower heads.
This is especially useful if you want to harvest sunflower seeds for next year or bird seed for the winter.
To protect the seeds from birds, you should put permeable fabric over the flowers. Alternatively, the flowers can also be dried indoors.
Cutting sunflowers in autumn
In autumn, most gardeners cut off the sunflowers entirely because the dried stems with the sadly drooping flower heads are not a pleasant sight.
Never tear the plant out completely, but leave the roots in the ground. They decompose there during the winter, loosening the soil and enriching it with nutrients.
Cut the sunflowers just above the ground. For very thick and woody stems, a knife is often not enough. Sometimes you have to use a pruning saw (€39.00 on Amazon) to cut off the sunflowers.
Cut sunflowers for the vase
If you want to cut off a pretty bouquet of sunflowers for the vase, only choose flowers that are no longer completely closed but also not completely open.
The best time of day to cut sunflower flowers is in the morning. Choose a day when it didn't rain.
So that the sunflowers last a long time in the vase, cut them at the bottom. Submerge the stems in boiling water for a few seconds before placing them in the vase.
- Remove lower leaves
- Cut the stems
- Hold briefly in boiling water
- Put in lukewarm water
- Change water daily
- Cut stems every two days
Tips & Tricks
As a bird lover, you should never cut off all the sunflower flowers that have faded. There is hardly a better opportunity to see the feathered garden inhabitants approaching and picking out the seeds.
