Sunflowers are one of the most popular and beautiful kind of flowers around. Many of us can remember as children planting a sunflower and watching it grow at a fantastic speed, measuring the height each day until it towered over us.
The bright-yellow sunflower is also famous for its appearance in the works of Van Gogh and for the huge meadows of yellow that we can sometimes see when we are driving in the countryside. Huge fields are planted each year to produce sunflower oil that almost all of us use in our day-to-day cooking. It certainly is a lot cheaper than olive oil, that’s for sure! You can also eat the seeds.
But while we are very familiar with the big yellow version, there are actually many different types of sunflower in existence. One of which is the ‘Helianthus Annuus’, commonly known simply as the 'pink sunflower'.
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These are gaining in popularity with gardeners and the green-fingered across the country as they are so unique and brighten up a garden like you won’t imagine! The pink sunflower still has the dark centre, where the sunflower seeds are found, but instead of yellow petals they have leaves of a pink hue that taper off into a strawberry blonde at the tips.
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What is really great is that just like yellow sunflowers these beauties are really easy to grow, though they do not really like the cold. Planted in a sunny area with moist soil, the flower can go from seed to bloom in just 4 months and can be expected to live for around 100 days in summer. It will then return year after year as long as the conditions are correct.
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With just a watering can and perhaps some sunflower feed, which can be picked up at any garden centre or large department store, your garden can be the envy of the neighbourhood. Some folk have even taken to posting their pink sunflowers on Instagram to share with the world. One thing we know is that once something as beautiful as this hits the internet it won’t be long before many of them are seen in gardens across the globe.
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So why not try something new and invest in some pink sunflower seeds for your garden!
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