How to Grow Sunflowers

Information and Facts

  • The sunflower is an annual plant from the Americas and is named after its bright heads which look like the sun. It was revered by the Aztecs.
  • It has many uses – as feed for animals, its seeds are harvested for bird food and for us eaten as seeds or used in baking, as sunflower oil for cooking, and for decoration.
  • Van Gogh painted a world famous picture entitled “Sunflowers” in 1888. It is on display in the National Gallery in London.

Growing Sunflowers in Class

Equipment – seeds, pots or toilet roll holders, pencils, compost, plant labels, plastic bottles.Method

  1. Fill the pots with compost and place in one seed per pot.
  2. Cover lightly with compost, label, cover with the bottle top and place on the window.
  3. Plant on in a bigger pot and stake or plant outside when 15cm tall in May after frost has passed. Keep the slugs away. They go mad for young sunflowers!
  4. Harvest the seeds in September or leave out for the birds to feed on in winter.

Sunflower ideas for class.

  1. Have a tallest sunflower or first flower to open competition
  2. Try some experiments. A. With two sunflowers give one only water and the other a water based plant feed B. Plant one seed in a small pot and the other in a large pot.
  3. Get the children to find out more information on Van Gogh’s famous painting before painting their own.

Online Links for Van Gogh sunflower pictures

for lots of activities across the curriculum to do with sunflowers

Curriculum Links Science:Strands; Living Things, Materials. Strand Units; Plant life, Materials and Change Visual Arts: Strands; Drawing, Paint and Colour

Paul O’Donnell “From Dung to Dinner” SESE Month by Month Inside and Outside the Classroom