FULL TOUR: 2023 SUNFLOWERS // BACKYARD FLOWER FARM

Hello everyone, welcome back to the garden. This is going to be an exciting one. At least I personally think it's exciting. This is going to be the sunflower tour. I drew several different varieties of sunflowers this year. This was the first year that I could grow a lot of sunflowers. It's the first time I've ever had space for them. So I wanted to give you a quick tour or a kind of more intensive tour actually or walk around of what I grew this year. The different varieties that I grew. If you are interested, there are time stamps for each of the varieties down in the comments below so you don't have to watch the whole thing if you don't want to. Other than that, sit back and relax. I hope you enjoy this one. This one took a little while to put together, but hopefully it was worth it. And let's get right on into it. The sunflower tour, the first one ever. I'm so excited. I should mention, if you have any suggestions for next year, what varieties to grow, put them down in the comments below and I'll do my best to get hands on them and grow them and we can see what they actually look like when they're out in the yard being grown in real life. Because I know a lot of times the catalog pictures do not look exactly how they should. I should also mention that these are listed in the order that they opened and bloomed. These were all planted at the same time. So that might help you in terms of blooming order. The first flower that began blooming here in the yard is one of the Pro Cut series. This is Pro Cut White Knight. One of the reasons that I like Pro Cut so much is they are so dependable in terms of bloom time and the production of flowers. White Knight is no exception to this. A lot of these in this video are looking a little rough, I should mention, because we did have a lot of rain at the time they were in bloom. So I was unable to pick them at the proper time and get, you know, the best looking bloom possible. But this variety, the petals are so delicate. They're just a very soft pastel shade of yellow. This is beautiful, but it also makes them a little more susceptible to bug and insect damage, which is really a bummer. So I really had to make sure to pick them while they were still opening to kind of prevent, you know, damage from cucumber beetles and things like that from being a major issue. I think these are a really great alternative to the more dark, buttery colored yellow sunflowers. This is a good option for spring and summer when the colors are still, you know, light and vibrant and we haven't really switched to that dark kind of autumn tone yet. You know, that autumn color palette that's kind of darker like just burgundies and reds. These were also highly attractive to the bees as a lot of these are, you'll see throughout the video. Overall, I think this one is a definite winner and I definitely would want to grow this one again. It's so pretty. I love it. Moving right on to the next flower that began to bloom here in the yard. This is another taller version of sunflower. This one is Pro Cut Bi-Color. I'm not really too much on bi-color flowers, sunflowers at least. For some reason, just the dark burgundies, they aren't really my favorite but I had grown Pro Cut Bi-Color in the past so I knew that this one would be a winner. The spacing on these is about one foot apart just so you know. So, my flowers are a little bit on the smaller side just because how I choose to space the plants and whatnot. Pro Cut Bi-Color is really consistent in terms of producing those flowers with the darker yellow outer petals, the dark center, and that dark burgundy ring around each. Very lovely flower. I would definitely plant this later in the fall though. I should have waited several weeks before I planted this one so I could have these available in the fall rather than in mid-summer because, I mean, honestly around mid-summer most people aren't looking for bi-color sunflowers yet because they're just not in that mind frame yet. It's still really warm outside so I think I would wait to grow these in kind of a succession planting type scenario. The next flower that began to bloom, or the next sunflower I should say, is another really really gorgeous one I really really liked and this has been one of my favorites for a very long time. This is Pro Cut Brilliance. Pro Cut Brilliance is actually one of the very first sunflowers that I ever grew when I first started flower farming even in my tiny little backyard. These were spaced a little bit closer. The spacing on these was about eight inches apart which will explain why the flowers are a little bit smaller. You'll find that the closer you space them the smaller the flowers are and vice versa. These were a little bit shorter. I had planted these in trays and transplanted just a little bit later after the flowers had become a little bit bigger so that explains that. Anyway they are just a rich beautiful buttery just traditional yellow color with that dark center. They stay gorgeous out in the field for a very long time and allow for a very long harvest window. Like the rest of the Pro Cut series these are pollen free and even though they don't produce pollen they still have plenty of nectar for pollinators and insects and things like that. These will remain one of my favorites. I think the Pro Cut Brilliance I will always continue to grow it as one of my favorite flowers. I'm sure some of that is like for sentimental reasons because it's one of the first flowers that I ever grew but well deserved. I think they are really nice and really gorgeous. The next flower to begin blooming was Starburst Lemon Aura. This one you'll notice this one has a little bit smaller flowers just because I had planted several of them in the same hole. I had planted these really close together in trays and separating them was difficult. They are a very pale yellow. They are susceptible to bug damage much like the Pro Cut White Knight is but as long as you pick them early they are totally gorgeous and creamy and I love the kind of double center. It's so beautiful. I think this one is definitely one of my favorites and I will definitely be adding this one to my list of flowers to grow again in the future and I might even space them out a little bit further so I can get larger flower heads than I did this time around but they are definitely a keeper. They are definitely gorgeous. Oh I'm so excited. I really really liked this one. The next flower to begin blooming here in the yard was an interesting one. This one's a little bit different. This one is called Starburst Greenburst. I think yeah that's right Starburst Greenburst. As you can see it has very much the same flower structure and form as the previous one however rather than having the pale petals they have more of the traditional sunflower color and the green center is so prominent in these. I just love this green center because the green center kind of gives them that look like they are fresh and vibrant and very much a summertime type of in bloom flower rather than a fall kind of feel at least I think so personally. These also stayed really well in the garden and looked nice for a long time. I always appreciate when flowers will you know stand in the garden for several days even if you're behind on picking them and still look very nice. I think this one is another favorite that I will be adding to my list of keeper type flowers you know for the growing season. These also looked really great as the season progressed and the ones that I didn't pick continued to bloom and produce branches and ended up looking really nice as just an average garden sunflower you know for ornamental purposes so I think that's a double bonus. The next sunflower variety to begin to bloom is another gorgeous one. Are you seeing a pattern? I just love these things. This is Astra Rose I believe is the name of it. I'll write it of course on the screen know for sure. This one came from Baker Creek Seeds. This was a group a packet of 10 seeds which is like nothing. They were pretty expensive but I'm always kind of on the hunt for something new and unique an idea and these did not disappoint. They were gorgeous. They have that double center that is so pretty and these were more of a pale yellow color and many of them had the ever so slightest hint of blush pink which as you know if you grow a lot of flowers that blush pink tone beautiful. Everybody loves a good blush pink tone it seems. I'm definitely gonna try to grow this one again. I'm hoping that this will produce seeds. I haven't seen anything in terms of them being pollen free but I haven't noticed any pollen either so I'm just gonna wait and see what happens with these as they bloom and maybe hope to obtain more seed in the future. We'll see. I'm just gonna play it by ear for that one unfortunately. I'm sorry I don't have more information on it. The next sunflower that began to bloom is another one that I thought was super cool. I'm always into kind of like different you know like looking petals and things. This one is Stella. This is the bright yellow one that has these wispy kind of quill like petals. Unfortunately they didn't last very long in the garden. You had to be really on top of picking them fresh in order to make sure that they looked their best. As you can see the heads kind of quickly droop downwards and the petals began to deteriorate. They have that kind of rolled petal appearance that makes them look kind of ragged and old. Even the new flowers have that same ragged appearance so the ones that you're seeing here are exactly how they look when they first open. I think this is a cool kind of novelty. I'm not quite sure if this variety is a good choice for me for cut flowers but it was very pretty to have in the garden. So overall I'm not disappointed but at the same time I'm not sure that I would grow this exact variety again even though I technically like the characteristic growth habit of it. So a little undecided on this one. Let me know what you think down below. The next variety to begin to bloom here in the yard was the one called Harlequin. Harlequin is a branching sunflower variety. I had purchased this one last minute as a way to fill in gaps. I had a lot of gaps in the row caused by deer and I just stuck these in there because I didn't have many colorful ones. There were really some beautiful tones of red and peach and pink in here but most of them were the same kind of rusty color that you expect with some of the kind of more autumn varieties of sunflower. The stems were nice and long. I will give them that. The branching. The stems were plenty long to cut each branch for cut flowers which is an obvious bonus but overall I'm not quite sure if I would grow this one again. I think I'll continue looking for another autumn sunflower that maybe is a little bit more robust and a little less dainty and delicate in terms of petals and things like that. The next variety ended up being a surprise to me and it actually ended up being one of my favorites. This one is called Orange Ruffles. You can see here in the video there's a lot of grass and stuff growing up through the Orange Ruffles patch. Unfortunately that is some invasive grass and there was very little I could do to keep it out. Next year when I grow my sunflowers again and grow my garden again I think I'll have a better handle of it since this is a new garden. You'll notice that Orange Ruffles has that same kind of wispy rolled appearance as the Stella however they're a little bit darker orange and they have this unique ring of kind of wispy bits around the center disc and I think they are so cool. This ended up being one of my favorite varieties that I grew this year to my surprise. They stayed looking nice in the garden for a very very long time and I was not disappointed. I love the kind of carefree frizzled appearance of these and I think this is definitely one that I will add to my list of keepers to grow again in the future because this one was super neat. Next up we have another one that's kind of in the darker orange family I would consider. This one was troublesome from the moment it bloomed to the you know it was just heavy and dirty looking. They got rained on in an inopportune time and it just caused the whole section of this flower just to look gross and icky and I honestly didn't end up using a single one of these for cut flower arrangements unfortunately. If you've grown this one before you know this is the double quick orange. It's actually kind of disappointing because I have grown double quick orange before and I had really good results with it and the flowers were beautiful and they held in the garden. I think it might have just been a timing issue. I'm not gonna completely throw out double quick orange sunflower for now. I think I will try to grow it again in the future. I think maybe maybe I just had a bit of bad luck in terms of weather this year with this one. It was just it was it was really a bummer. It was a flop. Oh well you can't expect everything to be perfect every time. The next sunflower I wanted to show y'all or show you guys is another one that was a little bit surprising to me. I had ordered this one looking for something different. This one is called a Sundance Kid. This is a dwarf variety. One of the main reasons that I was so drawn to this one is that it does have that double center that I like so much and rather than kind of the pinky you know peach hues it has the dark maroon and burgundy with a kind of almost black center. These are as I mentioned a dwarf so they were only just about you know just over a foot tall if I had to guess between a foot foot and a half two feet maybe if I'm being generous. The blooms were very interesting and very pretty. I'm not quite sure if I would grow them again. I imagine that these would be a really good choice for growth in containers. I ended up spacing these about six inches and I still got these beautiful these really nice beautiful flowers. I don't think I'd add this one again to my list but it might be a good option for people looking for different types of dwarf varieties because these were they were pretty cute. I do have to admit that they were pretty cute. The next variety I wanted to show you is one called Gummy Bear. This one is super cute. This came from Johnny Seeds I believe. They are a pastel yellow color and they are very much double. Most of the flower opens double and they're that beautiful really light color that I showed you before. Very kind of susceptible to bug damage but a really pretty one nonetheless. I think I will definitely grow this one again. This one had a little bit of damage due to the weather like so many of the other ones had. We had just so many thunderstorms it was a little bit problematic but I definitely want to give this one another chance because I can see it has so much potential. These full flowers are just really nice. The next flower to bloom in the yard is one called Astra Gold. Like Astra Rose this one came from Baker Creek Seeds. The seeds were a little on the pricey side but these are very interesting and different from the others. As you can see the flowers don't really open up that much. They are very much like an anemone shape or almost like a chrysanthemum like appearance and I think kind of the jagged toothiness of it and the overall shape gives it an interesting edge in terms of adding texture to your arrangements and bouquets and things like that. So I think I definitely want to try to grow this again. Again not quite sure on the pollen situation or whether or not these will produce seeds. I'm waiting to kind of feel that out as the season progresses. Almost getting to the end here. There are a few more that I want to show you. This one that I want to show you here this one is called Sparky. I had purchased Sparky from a florist several years ago and I had been holding on to the seeds until I had a space you know for the garden to finally grow them. These are very interesting. These are a quill shape and like a lot of the quill shaped sunflowers you know I didn't really know what to expect but these are so cool. They're so toothy and kind of sparsely petaled that it's like a really neat attribute. Like sometimes when you get sparsely petaled plants it's like ugh you know but the color combinations of these are really nice kind of burgundies and yellows and again I'm not quite sure if these are going to produce seed but I'm definitely going to wait them out. I'm not picking any of these. I'm going to wait them out to see if they will produce seed that I can save because I will be really interested to get a large stand of these if possible. These are so neat. I really like these. They are branching. The stems are nice and long. Overall a great addition to the yard. I also wanted to show you the Golden Cheer sunflowers. Like several of the other ones Golden Cheer opens up to a kind of a semi-double sunflower with that nice green center. I just love that green center. I can't get enough. Some problems with the weather on this one for sure. This was one of the last ones to begin to open up and bloom so I think that is to be expected and a lot more insect pressure by the time these opened up in about mid-summer. A lot more going on in terms of you know conditions to keep the petals looking nice but as long as they were picked early overall there was a really good result and I have no complaints there. I think I would definitely give these another try in the future. That's really about it for this video. I hope that it was helpful. I really enjoyed growing all these sunflowers so I could take you on a tour with me taking a look at the different ones. As I mentioned earlier be sure to leave your comments down below of what type of sunflower you'd like to see me grow next year and I'll do my best to get my hands on them and do another tour then. As always links to everything here down in the description below. There's some links to the blog. You can check out each of these varieties in greater detail over there with more pictures and a little bit more information. If you're interested links to Patreon and Instagram and everything else are there as well. Thank you so much for taking the time to watch this. It really does mean a lot to me and honestly it wouldn't be possible to do this without this YouTube channel and your views and you watching so I really am appreciative of it and I hope you're having a really great day. You totally deserve it. Thank you so much. I will talk to you all later. Bye!