Sunflower Teddy Bear
A sunflower unlike any other: double, densely packed blooms like pompons, in deep orange-yellow, with no visible centre like traditional sunflowers.
About the variety. Teddy Bear produces multiple flower heads per plant on strong, upright stems. It is equally excellent as a bedding plant and as a cut flower. The petals are edible. It reaches 60–90 cm, making it more compact than most sunflowers.
Itinerário técnico
Um guia de cultivo passo a passo, da sementeira à colheita.
Sow direct two or three centimetres deep, with the soil above 12 °C, and thin to thirty or forty five centimetres. Germination takes seven to ten days. It dislikes transplanting because of its taproot. Protect the sowing from birds and rodents with netting, because the seed is a tempting target and vanishes within hours. This variety is dwarf and needs no stake; it grows well in a pot at least twenty five centimetres deep with drainage holes, watered more often than in the ground.
It adapts to almost any soil as long as it is deep and free draining, at a pH between 6.0 and 7.5. The root goes down a long way, which is why it stands drought well. It does not need rich soil, but the giant varieties appreciate compost in the planting hole.
It wants full sun and heat, between 18 °C and 28 °C. It resists drought and strong heat, which makes it an easy crop inland in Iberia. The main problem is wind: tall plants go over easily, so plant somewhere sheltered or stake the giant varieties. Inland in Portugal and Spain heat rather than cold is the limiting factor: in weeks above 35 °C the plant stalls and light shade over midday pays for itself. Where summers are short, always choose the shorter cycle varieties and sow them direct as soon as the soil has warmed. In Italy it is an easy crop: in the centre and south plant from April onwards and the only real care is light shade through the July and August heat; in the Po valley and the north wait for the late frosts to pass and pick the sunniest spot you have. This is an early variety, which makes it particularly suited to short summer regions such as northern France and Germany, and also to a late second crop in the south. Sow only once nights stay above 10 °C: a sowing in cold soil rots or comes up thin, and nothing is gained by rushing.
Its needs are moderate. One to two kilos of mature compost per square metre worked in before sowing covers most of the cycle. If the leaves pale, one watering with a balanced liquid organic feed halfway through is enough. Never use fresh manure, which burns roots and encourages disease.
Water regularly for the first weeks, then less often but deeply so the root goes down. Step it up at flowering, the phase of greatest need. Once established it is remarkably drought resistant.
Hand weed in the first weeks, while the plant is small and loses every contest for light and water. Once it is established, mulch with five to seven centimetres of straw, dried grass or leaves: it holds weeds back, keeps moisture in and stops rain splashing soil onto the lower leaves, which is how most diseases begin. Always hoe shallowly so you do not cut the roots running just under the surface.
Birds are the main problem, at sowing and later on the ripe head: cover the seed at sowing and bag the heads with mesh once the seeds start to fill. Aphids and thrips attack the young leaves. Slugs eat the seedlings. Against them, sow a little thicker and thin later, or protect with an ash barrier until the plant has four leaves. Head caterpillars bore into the centre in hot years.
Downy and powdery mildew affect the leaves in humid conditions. Sclerotinia rots the stem and head and is the most serious disease, favoured by wet soil and short rotations. Rust makes orange pustules. Water at the base and never over the foliage, and space the plants well so air moves through: nearly all these diseases start with wet leaves. Use a four year rotation and do not repeat sunflower in the same bed.
For cut flowers, cut when the head is opening and the petals are still fresh, in the morning. For seed, wait until the back of the head turns from green to yellowish brown and the bracts dry; cut the head, hang it somewhere dry and airy and thresh once fully dry. Leaving it too long on the plant means losing the lot to the birds. Allow about 65 to 75 days from sowing to the first harvest of this variety. The reference colour is orange yellow, and that is what tells you it is ready.
