My Little Lidl Sunflower

Hello there

I purchased a Sunflower recently from Lidl, and transferred it to a new pot with lots of new soil, and have been watering it daily.

It has bloomed further, but the flowers are looking quite dry, and the leaves eaten, it appears the snails have gotten to it...

Here is a picture below, my dream is to have this sunflower to grow as tall as possible and then properly plant it into the ground soil.

My question is whether this is possible with store-bought sunflowers, and whether anyone could provide further insight into what I may be doing wrong by looking at the image?

Kind regards, and many thanks in advance.

 

We have never grown sunflowers in pots always outdoors. Trying to transplant after flowering you may find that it is an annual plant and having flowered that is job done.

 

Most sunflowers are annuals. For next year they are easy and cheaper from seed, sow in late April early May. I pot them on until about two ft tall then stick in the ground and leave them to it.
I've found that growing on to around 2 ft means they don't disappear over the first weekend after planting out.

 

Hi @OneOfManyLondoners , this plant is unfortunately already in retirement. Keep it and hopefully it will form a handsome head full of seeds you (or birds) can eat. The damage indeed looks like snail or slug related.

Sunflowers are annual so grow just one summer. You could perhaps give a try to grow your own, if the summer is merciful you might still get a display this year.

Take some seeds (any will do, human or bird edibles should be fine as long as they are in their shells and unsalted), sow in small pots and pot on on windowsill until they are about 30cm tall and robust enough not to mind a bit of snail feeding.

It's very rewarding to see the seedlings grow into lovely plants.

And if you have too many seedlings, you can eat them like pea shoots

 

All great advice, thank you very much all. I'd have thought the snail community and I had come to an agreement, especially as I tend to lift them out of harms way and to more damp areas whenever I have the chance! I guess they are the felines of the mollusk population when it comes to gratitude .

I'll plant it at the back garden the next opportunity I have, and hope to update the thread with good news in the future.

 

I suspect that your Lidl sunflower is of a dwarf variety , such as Choco Sun, that is not intended to be tall. It will of been grown just to flower and find a willing buyer-job done !