How to Plant and Grow Sunflowers in Pots for Beautiful Blooms

• Growing sunflowers in pots is easy, but you have to follow specific care requirements.
• Plant sunflower seeds in a pot that can handle your full-grown sunflowers, so you don’t have to repot them.
• Sunflowers grow best in a full-sun spot on a south-facing windowsill, patio, or porch.

When you hear “sunflowers,” the idea of growing them in pots may be the furthest thing from your mind. But there are many types of sunflowers, and some of them perform admirably in a pot, provided that you take a few basic steps to ensure their optimal growth.

Learn how to plant and grow sunflowers in pots, from sowing the seed to choosing the perfect location for the pot.

How to Plant and Grow Sunflowers in Pots

Sunflowers are easy to grow, but you can increase your chances of success in the project by taking the following steps:

1. Select a suitable variety to grow in a pot.
2. Select a suitable pot. At the most basic level, match the size of the container to the size that the plant will achieve at maturity.
3. Fill the pot with a potting mix.
4. Sowing seeds directly in the pot, rather than starting the plants on a windowsill and transplanting them later, to avoid transplant shock. Sunflowers grow vigorously enough that you don’t have to bother starting them indoors.
5. Provide adequate water.
6. Thin your seedling by selecting the seedling that looks healthiest as the one to keep, then gently remove the rest. This avoids overcrowding. If you want to grow multiple potted sunflowers, buy multiple pots.
7. Locate the pot in a sunny spot.
8. Fertilize your potted sunflower.
9. Deadhead the flowers to encourage further blooming.

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Sowing the Seed and Nursing the Seedlings

The day before sowing seed, fill the container with potting mix (to within an inch of the rim) and sprinkle the surface with water to help it settle.

You will be sowing a few seeds in the pot to ensure that something germinates, but you will be keeping only one seedling. Make your planting holes with a pencil, going down 1/2 inch.

Drop a seed in each hole, then tamp down the soil to cover it. Water the soil lightly; do not make the soil soggy.

After germination, irrigate regularly, but not excessively. The objective is to keep the soil evenly moist. Wait for the seedlings to put on a few inches of height before selecting the best one and thinning out the rest.

The problem with thinning earlier is that young seedlings are particularly susceptible to damage from slugs and snails. A small plant can be decimated overnight by these pests.

If you remove all seedlings but one too early, only to have that one destroyed by pests, you’ll have to start all over again.

Soil

Sunflowers grown in containers need good drainage. This is why you’ll be using a potting soil rather than garden soil: Potting soil is lighter and drains faster.

Sunflowers are also heavy feeders, so they will require fertilization. A slow-release fertilizer is the safest type to use. You can also amend the soil with compost or aged manure.

Light

Sunflowers need full sun to grow properly. Station your pot in a location that, on a typical sunny day, gets six to eight hours of direct sunlight.

Water

Your goal in watering is to keep the soil evenly moist. It should not be allowed to dry out completely, nor should it be soggy. Potted sunflowers have to be watered more frequently than those grown in the ground, because containers dry out faster than the ground.

But other factors, such as weather, also affect how often you will need to irrigate. To determine when it is time to water again, poke a hole an inch down into the soil: If it is not evenly moist down to that level, then it is time to water.

Location

In addition to choosing a location with full sun, select one that is sheltered from high winds. Potted sunflowers are very attractive on south-facing decks or patios.

Best Sunflowers for Pots

There are single-stem sunflowers and branching sunflowers. The single-stem types are great for cut flowers, as they bear large blooms on sturdy stalks.

Branching types hold a charm of their own; some gardeners prefer them for patio displays, since they produce multiple blooms.

Not all sunflower varieties grow well in pots. Large types, such as Helianthus annuus ‘Mammoth,’ are ill-suited for pots. Dwarf varieties are more suitable for pots; as a bonus, the shorter the sunflower, the less you will have to worry about it being buffeted by wind gusts.

Find seeds for any of the more compact varieties of Helianthus annuus, which include:

• ‘Firecracker’: 2 to 3 feet tall, Firecracker is a branching sunflower. It has bicolored flowers (gold and reddish) with dark centers.
• ‘Little Becka’: 1 to 2 feet tall, Little Becka is a branching sunflower. It has bicolored flowers (gold and copper) with dark centers.
• ‘SunBuzz’: A shorter branching type (up to 20 inches tall), SunBuzz has yellow flowers with dark centers.
• ‘Sunfinity’: A taller specimen (up to 4.5 feet), Sunfinity is a branching sunflower that has golden flowers with dark centers.
• ‘Teddy Bear’: Teddy Bear is a single-stem type, sporting a large, golden flower that has a fuzzy texture. It stands 2 to 3 feet tall.

Mexican sunflowers (Tithonia rotundifolia) are not true sunflowers, but they, too, perform well in pots.

Best Pots for Sunflowers

What makes a good container for sunflowers is one that:

• Has a large drain hole (to promote the excellent drainage that potted sunflowers need)
• Stays cool even while being pounded by the sun
• Has enough heft to offer stability
• Is big enough that the soil won’t dry out too quickly yet not so big that the soil will retain excessive moisture
• Is made of a material that “breathes”

Terra cotta pots are generally the best choice. Unlike plastic pots, they are porous, which allows for evaporation and keeps soil from becoming waterlogged.