For decades gardeners and cut-flower lovers have admired Teddy Bear, the dwarf sunflower with big double yellow blooms, as well as its cousin Sungold. Well, now there's Superted, with the same beautiful 3½-inch blooms just packed with petals, but this time on a full-sized, majestic plant! It's just waiting for your best vases, your Three Sisters vegetable planting, and all the sunny spots in your garden!
Superted comes to us from Europe, where it has been hailed as a sensational cut-flower. These blooms are extra-thick, simply packed with short, bright yellow petals. If you prefer to leave your sunflowers uncut, let the blooms go to seed and watch birds flock to these tall, sturdy stalks to feast on the seeds in autumn! Otherwise, pick the flower as soon as it is fully open and enjoy more than a week of magnificent color in the vase. A single bloom makes a bouquet, but it also pairs well with everything from Echinacea to Gaillardia, Salvia, Zinnia, and Rudbeckia -- all the lovely midsummer bloomers!
This sunflower reaches about 5¼ feet high in the sunny garden, a tower of radiant light when in bloom and a sturdy architectural feature all season long. Sunflower is the fourth sister of the Native American Three Sisters Planting, a symbiotic arrangement in which tall plants (the corn and sunflower) provide a climbing structure and a bit of shade for the vertical vine (the bean), while the horizontal vine (the squash) covers ground, helping preserve soil moisture and keep away weeds. Consider planting a Three Sisters with the Fourth Sister -- Superted! -- as the centerpiece!
Superted is earlier to bloom than many sunflowers, opening its flowers a full 3 weeks ahead of others such as Double Shine. It simply takes off from direct-sowing, and sets buds in no time!
Direct-sow sunflower seeds when the soil is thoroughly warm in spring. Planting too early can delay germination, and these annuals grow so quickly that you'll have plenty of "season" even if the warm weather is late arriving. Sunflowers bloom facing the sun, so they will all be turned in the same direction in the garden. For a full summer of glorious Superteds, sow the seeds every 2 weeks from spring into summer. Your vases will always be full!
