When you think of sunflowers most people think of the tall yellow ones that the birds love so much. Sunflowers come in all different heights. The dwarf variety like Teddy Bear grow only one to two feet in height. Teddy Bear makes a wonderful cut flower and make quite a statement in a vase in your front hall as people enter your home.

As for yellow, you can grow sunflowers in many different colours. Moonshadow is a pure white sunflower. If your home is red brick or other dark colour a row of moonshadow planted along the foundation will really brighten things up.

If your house is white brick or a light colour, yellow sunflowers seem to get washed out. For a light coloured house try some of the bold coloured sunflowers like Chocolate Cherry which is a wonderful deep red colour.Or Moulin Rouge which is so dark of a red it appears almost black! Another good choice is Chocolate, with it deep red colours.

If you want to you can grow green sunflowers! Jade is a light green colour with a large head on it. Green Ice has smaller flowers and doesn't grow as tall.

You can have vines growing up your sunflower stalks as well. White Wisteria vine looks amazing when growing up one of the almost black sunflowers. Or try Kniolas Black Night Morning Glories growing up one of the white or green sunflowers.

At the end of the season leave your sunflowers up instead of taking them down. They make great bird feeders and best of all you don't have to fill them every day! Watching the birds will be winter entertainment. When the heavy seed heads hang over and as the birds eat their way towards the center they occasionally loose their footing. The Blue Jays are great for this.

Did you know that the dries sunflower stalks make excellent fire starters? They catch fire very quickly and burn very hot. They can be used to get your camp or bon fire going or to start your wood stove for heat in the winter.

For more information on sunflowers, including a link to get a free packet of sunflower seeds for your garden, please visit my blog Just Sunflowers at http://justsunflowers.blogspot.com. Here you will find more information of different coloured sunflowers and where you can purchase the seeds.

Learn more about this author, Debbie Wall.
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