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!
Grown for its edible seeds and for ornamental use in the border. These following flower in late summer and are very large and vigorous. Helianthus annuus, Common Sunflower, grows 4-6 feet tall with daisy-like flower heads in a multitude of sizes and colors, but generally with brown disk flowers and showy yellow ray florets. Helianthus debilis grows 4-7 feet tall and generally have 3 inch, yellow or white flowers. Helianthus giganteus, Giant Sunflower, is a perennial to Zone 3 but is commonly grown as an annual. It grows 9-12 feet tall and sports giant, 1 foot diameter flowers with light yellow to gold showy ray florets. All of the above have large, coarse, hairy, and somewhat sticky leaves
Superior Germination Through Superior Science
First of all, we have humidity- and temperature-controlled storage, and we never treat any of our seeds with chemicals or pesticides. Nor do we ever sell GMO's (genetically modified seeds), so you always know the products you're buying from us are natural as well as safe for you and the environment.
Superior Standards - University Inspected
Hand Packed By Experienced Technicians
Park Seed has been handling and packing vegetable and flower seeds for 145 years, a history that has given us a great understanding of how each variety should be cared for and maintained throughout every step of theprocess, from collection to shipping.
When packing our seeds, the majority are actually done by hand (with extreme care!), and we often over-pack them, so you're receiving more than the stated quantity.
The Park Seed Gold Standard
Heirloom Seeds are open-pollinated -- they are not hybrids. You can gather and save heirloom seed from year to year and they will grow true to type every year, so they can be passed down through generations. To be considered an heirloom, a variety would have to be at least from the 1940's and 3 generations old (many varieties are much older -- some 100 years or more!).
Hybrid seed are the product of cross-pollination between 2 different parent plants, resulting in a new plant/seed that is different from the parents. Unlike Heirloom seed, hybrid seed need to be re-purchased new every year (and not saved). They usually will not grow true to type if you save them, but will revert to one of the parents they were crossed with and most likely look/taste different in some way.
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!
Grown for its edible seeds and for ornamental use in the border. These following flower in late summer and are very large and vigorous. Helianthus annuus, Common Sunflower, grows 4-6 feet tall with daisy-like flower heads in a multitude of sizes and colors, but generally with brown disk flowers and showy yellow ray florets. Helianthus debilis grows 4-7 feet tall and generally have 3 inch, yellow or white flowers. Helianthus giganteus, Giant Sunflower, is a perennial to Zone 3 but is commonly grown as an annual. It grows 9-12 feet tall and sports giant, 1 foot diameter flowers with light yellow to gold showy ray florets. All of the above have large, coarse, hairy, and somewhat sticky leaves
Superior Germination Through Superior Science
First of all, we have humidity- and temperature-controlled storage, and we never treat any of our seeds with chemicals or pesticides. Nor do we ever sell GMO's (genetically modified seeds), so you always know the products you're buying from us are natural as well as safe for you and the environment.
Superior Standards - University Inspected
Hand Packed By Experienced Technicians
Park Seed has been handling and packing vegetable and flower seeds for 145 years, a history that has given us a great understanding of how each variety should be cared for and maintained throughout every step of theprocess, from collection to shipping.
When packing our seeds, the majority are actually done by hand (with extreme care!), and we often over-pack them, so you're receiving more than the stated quantity.
The Park Seed Gold Standard
Heirloom Seeds are open-pollinated -- they are not hybrids. You can gather and save heirloom seed from year to year and they will grow true to type every year, so they can be passed down through generations. To be considered an heirloom, a variety would have to be at least from the 1940's and 3 generations old (many varieties are much older -- some 100 years or more!).
Hybrid seed are the product of cross-pollination between 2 different parent plants, resulting in a new plant/seed that is different from the parents. Unlike Heirloom seed, hybrid seed need to be re-purchased new every year (and not saved). They usually will not grow true to type if you save them, but will revert to one of the parents they were crossed with and most likely look/taste different in some way.