Sunflower Starburst Mix Hybrid

Entirely pollen-free and packed with long, elegantly twisted petals, the Starburst Sunflowers are a refreshing new take on the classic American wildflower. The plants are very well-branched and not quite as tall as some of the classic varieties, making them much more manageable for the garden. Now you can plant Sunflowers in the back of the sunny bed or border without worrying about staking!

These double-flowered blooms all measure about 3 to 4 inches wide, packed with ray-like petals surrounding frilly, frizzy petals in any number of concentric rings. The big centers vary from green to deep brown, often with more than one color. Altogether, they have a crested look, like a Chrysanthemum. Individually, each variety is distinctive: Panache has golden petals and a dark center, ideal for cutflowers. Aura has golden blooms with extra-long, slender rayed petals and a tiny chartreuse-green center. Lemon Eclair has pale yellow petals surrounding a slightly darker ray of shorter petals, shading into a rich brown center. And Lemon Aura is a luscious combo of creamy-yellow with a large green center.

Unlike the giant Sunflowers, which arise one per stem, Starburst offers thick, sturdy stems on multibranching plants, so you get many more blooms. Just a foot wide, this well-branched plant reaches 4 to 6 feet high, studded with buds in early summer and ready to keep blooming all season. Terrific flower power!

And all the Starbursts are Sunflowers you can handle freely without fear of aggravating your allergies. They're entirely pollen-free, so when you cut a big bouquet for the house, you don't have to clean up the pollen dust every morning! As someone who likes to keep jars of flowers all over the house, I really appreciate that.

Direct-sow these sun-lovers in any well-drained garden soil and give them plenty of water during growth and flowering. Heat- and humidity-tolerant, they grow easily in any sunny spot.

Sunflowers are the queens of the natural sunny summer garden, attracting butterflies and birds. They're wonderfully easy to grow -- just direct-sow the large seeds after all danger of frost. Not picky about soil type, they need direct sun. A native American plant, they have been grown for centuries as the "fourth sister" in the 3 Sisters group of corn, squash, and beans developed by Native Americans.

Thin the plants to 1 1/2 to 3 feet apart so that they can show off their foliage a bit as they grow. Pkt is 25 seeds.