A few months ago my five year old brought a weedy, scraggy little sunflower home from school.

It was in a little bit of compost that had been shoved into a disposable plastic drinking beaker and it looked half dead.

We looked after it for a few weeks before planting it in the back garden, and now, thanks to the rain and the gunk from my composter, its a 10 foot tall monster.

Over the past week though, the head has started to turn downwards and its face is now looking at the ground- I assume its because of all the rain we`ve had, but could that be a sign that the flower is ready to be beheaded? I want to collect the seeds because my kid and her friends all want some so they can grow sunflowers next year.

The petals still look healthy and theres a sort of filming of dust over the face of the plant.. Ive never managed to grow such a successful sunflower before so Im stuck here... What do I do now? Behead it or leave it for a while longer?

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Can you get up to the head and rub some of the dust and the remaining 'floret's' off? The seeds should be under these just see how big they are. Sadly the 'dust' sounds like mildew or grey mould - it's been far too wet for keeping them for seeds and you might lose a lot to these infections...

The stem is now almost bent double! The top five foot or so is so bent its curling back on itself- the petals are still fresh and the rains not touched the flower middle because its facing the ground now.

Im gonna leave it for a few more days and see what it does.

Hows the sunflower Jabbers? Have you got any seeds from it yet?

I left it in the garden, Its practicalyl bent double now so tomorrow Im gonna take the five year old out and we`ll chop it down and try to get some seeds from it.

It seems such a shame to cut them though doesn't it. We've got one same as yours by the sounds of it and I keep looking at it and putting it off :hihi:

Ive never had one grow so big before so next year Im going to try to get about 20 growing at the same time :D

It's great having a garden full of sunflowers - more people should do it and if you leave them all winter the birds love them and it gives some interest (they look great covered in frost!).