I live in a very windy area and grow lots of sunflowers. My neighbor never grew sunflowers before I moved here 4 yrs ago because she was afraid they would blow over in the wind.

Well, last yr for the 1st time I lost one sunflower that blew over. Odd, because I've seen it much windier and never lost one before. I do sometimes have trouble with the taller annuals and perennials like cleome and zinnia's because the wind blows them over.

But generally it's not necessary to stake sunflowers. They'll develop a tree like trunk and can take a lot of abuse. And they're so much fun to grow and the birds love them.

So enjoy your sunflowers~

They are very self-supporting, even the bushy types. We had a hurricane last year which managed to knock over most of my DH's sunflowers. The short ones pretty much straightened themselves back upright; after the rains were over, DH went out and pulled the tall ones up and tamped their roots back in place. They all did fine. If you grow the ones that make really big heads of seed (like russian mammoth) you might want to plant them near a fence or tie them to stakes to help support the heavy heads, but it usually isn't necessary (unless you have a lot of windstorms or hurricanes).

Meldy,

I grow "mammoth" and have never lost a one.
I live in a wind tunnel, or a gap on the border of Va, WV and Md. The wind can make it a challenge at times.

Last year for 1st time I grew sunflowers - they got to about 7 feet tall (supposed to be 5-6!). No support needed, and the hurricane damage would have been same even with support. And I'm planning to grow some this year as well!

I too have grown a few types of the 4-5 foot tall sunflowers and their stems are so strong they never needed support. Only the flower heads drooped/nodded when they got full of mature seed. It's amazing how woody and tough the stems get after the plants are done too. I couldn't even budge the stumps out of the ground until we had a great rain. They felt harder than wood.

I found this on a website and thought it looked rather neat!! I was thinking about trying it out myself!

Laurie

Here is a link that might be useful: Sunflower Frame

Hubby made that Sunflower Frame for me last year. It did support the sunflowers well, but during any wind the smaller branches actually broke from being blown back and forth against the boards. This year I am not going to use it and see how it goes. It looked nice but was more trouble than it was worth. SusanM

Last year I had the 6-7 ft variety planted near a chain link fence and just used twist ties to secure them to the fence. This year the wabbits, squirrels will not let them grow past 3 inches.