How to support giant sunflowers?

So I made a bit of a blooper considering the size of my garden, and bought Mongolian Giant Sunflower seeds. I trust they will clash nicely with my pink-purple-white colour scheme.

They will go next to the garage in a newly dug bed.

Now the wicked problem is to support them, apparently the require a heavy duty solution.

So far I have considered screwing some loops on the garage wall and the side of the roof, and adding some sturdy wire for the plants. Or, I might buy those cheap but strong metal obelisks and build up a long pole from the bits. Or I might try one in a large pot and hang a support wire from first floor window. Or drink wine and let them wobble around as they wish.

Help please

 

Scaffolding.

 

Perfect- thanks so much Pete! Just what I want to enhance the garden atmosphere. Add a few fairy lights and Voila!

Actually, I'm expecting some roofing work to be done after storm Arwen placed some roof tiles on my lawn. I wonder if the roofers will notice if a handful of their scaffolding gets dismantled and hidden in the aforementioned garage in the darkness of the night...

 

I have the same problem, some years they reach for the Sky, others they hardly reach 5 ft high.

 

This was last seasons flowers.

 

Is there any way to make sunflowers look tidy.

I had some last year dotted around and they were all drunk most of the time.

 

Thanks John, you are right- I should browse builders' stuff rather than gardening things. Cheap, sturdy and delivered is what I'm after.

Just had a good discussion on the subject with my niece, 6. Once she figured out just how tall 4m actually is, she absolutely wants to try growing the beasts so I'll post her the leftover seeds. There is a slight problem that they live in the city centre and only have a balcony to grow things, but fortunately their upstairs neighbours are friendly and surely will not mind a giant sunflower brushing their balcony ceiling

 

I use rebar in different lengths. You can get them fairly cheap, or even for free if you know a guy at a construction site . Once they are a little rusty they are hard to see with the naked eye and make for a nice flexible support to give those sunflowers a chance. For my giant sunflowers with 300+ cm I use an extra long piece of rebar in the middle and build a little tripod with 3 smaller pieces at around 100 cm. Works like a charm and some other climbers usually take them by storm.

 

Pete - they self seed for us and I love their drunken ways! I find about 10% end up in trouble without support - and those would all be ones I've started early in pots. The self seeders are fine with whatever wind comes along (admittedly - this is over 3 years now only - and it could be that early/spring strong winds when they were smaller made them put on a lot of girth in their stem, which they definitely do develop for me).

Anyway: when I have sometimes staked them, canes were definitely not up to the job! the second one below is about 12 foot - sitting next to an Echium which towers over it. These are all self seeders.

 

Like above; the few self seeded sunflowers I get are self supporting and it is my ones sown in pots that lean over at unusual angles.
Also agree the stems on the self seeded are sturdier.
Just wondering if direct sown 3 or 4 to a station at the end of May would stand better than plants grown in greenhouse sown end of April. Slugs could be the major problem with direct sowing.

 

Yes - I think I will direct sow or even move self seeders this year: I've been 'requested' to add a little more structure and design to the garden this year which is going to be tricky as I have the design sense of a dead cow... I grew a ton of sunflowers in milk cartons last year - and lots of friends took them, which was great. But I started too early - in Feb I think. Won't do that again this year. Probably mid April direct sow if no self-seeders are showing where I need them or can move them from.

 

We normally stock a wide range of bamboo canes/poles but in general the G/C's only go for the 12/14mm or 14/16mm diameter. Commercial growers that have containerised ornamental trees will use 22/24mm or 24/26mm diameter in 2.4 or 3m lengths, there normally grade A+ so they don't taper down as much as standard canes, they do cost more though. Largest I have stocked is 140/160mm in 3m lengths. I have supplied a good 10,000 plus 25/30mm bamboo poles to fisherman, they use them to make lobster pots, its surprising what people make with bamboo.

 

We had a flash storm last night. Torrential rain, high winds, thunder and lightning... And of course it felled some of my sunflowers. Others are barely holding on, so I am glad to have found this thread.

Just to imagine the scale, each of the floor tiles is 40x40cm

The good news is, I now have a lot of sunflowers to gift to my neighbors....