Have no idea of the variety as I received them in a round robin swap, but I am loving my dwarf sunnies. I have this difficult spot (between tall iris foliage and a pathway) and I was looking for something only medium height (about 4') but meaty. The drawf sunnflowers are perfect. In fact I cut my first flower today.

I've always had a tall stately sunflower or two on the front path leading to the house. I leave the seeds on for the birds, who eat them all up except maybe a handful and those self- seed. I usually get 4-6 and then thin them down.

This year we were away for the "thinning time" and by the time we got back, I decide to let them all go. Instead of 4-6 I got a dozen this year and they were deep in the beds, so the deer didn't get any (Do they eat sunflowers? they seem to eat everything else).It is a variety that has many branches and makes perfect vase sized cuts. A bonus is that the seeds landed and grew in a part of the pathway garden that is way too dominated by a giant Nepeta ("six hills?" something like that) that I had meant to divide and move and never got around to it. So after it bloomed the sunflowers grew up and over it and it looks so much better!

Hope you get some real recommendations, not just people rambling like me...

Nancy

I like all sunflowers, except the Mammoth's they get too large.

I have Lemon Queen (I love this paler yellow, but it's 4-5 ft tall), Teddy bear (2-3 ft tall, maybe this flower will grow on me, for now it looks nice from a distance, but up close just too clustered) a mix of dwarf sunflowers reseeded from last year (this was seed from a local store last year and a mix of them including Sunny Smile--this year though the reseeders are about 1-2 ft taller than the ones last year), ProCut Series mix(single stem for cut flower), and Autumn Beauty (a mix of dark ringed colors, about 6-7 ft tall). Last year I grew Peach Passion which I loved and it was about 3-4 ft, but the beetles loved it too!

Deer definitely like sunflowers around here, but last year the ones closest to the house weren't bothered by them.

Sunflower re-growing after all the main leaves were munched off:

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You can kind of see the munched stalks to the right of the Lemon Queen flowers:

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