Today, I’m sharing backyard flower garden tips on best sunflower varieties for wildlife. Unfortunately, the bird populations has declined over the years. Pesticides and herbicides, the decline in insects, climate change and removal from their natural habitat are major factors in their decline. Today, I’m going to share the best sunflower varieties to grow in your backyard garden to help sustain our wildlife.
There are other steps you can take to help sustain wildlife, but today we’re focusing on solely on sunflowers. I add them to my vegetable garden every year. I love opening my curtains in the morning and seeing their smiling faces. Furthermore, I love it even more when I see my backyard birds feasting on the sunflower seeds. If you don’t have a vegetable garden, add them along a fence line or in your flower gardens.
Sunflowers attract pollinators which include bees, butterflies, honey bees, wasps, moths, flies, and beetles. We need pollinators to keep our ecosystem going. There are some sunflowers that are produced to not attract pollinators. Many gardeners do not want pollen dropping on their tables and mantels when they cut sunflower bouquets.
Here’s a few of the Best Sunflower Varieties for wildlife:
Lemon Queen – These beauties find a place in my garden every year. I love the lighter color of the petals versus the regular yellow petals found on most sunflowers. They are lovely planted among Autumn Beauty sunflowers. The contrasting colors are stunning.
Velvet Queen – Another beauty that finds a place in my garden. It’s sports deep red, almost burgundy colored petals.
Red Sun – I’ve never grown this particular variety, but I try it in my 2020 summer vegetable garden.
Chocolate Cherry – This sunflower has deep, dark, reddish brown petals that look beautiful with any yellow/lemon sunflowers. Plant a few.
Autumn Beauty – I have planted this variety, and I love it. It has multi-color petals in colors of gold, orange, yellow, red, and burgundy. It looks great with the deeper color sunflowers.
Evening Sun – Fortunately, this beauty goes into my garden every year. I plant it close to the Lemon Queen for the color contrast.
Henry Wild – I’m not familiar with this variety, but it’s great with pollination so it’s alright with me. I am going to do my homework, I may want to plant a few.
Russian Mammoth – So, I can’t live without this sunflower in my garden, and neither can my American Goldfinch. It is massive. The fence behind these Russian Mammoths is six feet. I’ve had them grown as tall as 12 – 15 feet.
Earth Walker – I haven’t had good luck with the Earth Walker. I planted a few this summer, but they failed to germinate. I haven’t given up though. I’ll try again in the upcoming growing season.
Mexican – Unfortunately, another variety that has failed to grown in my garden. I’ll be trying this variety again too. They’re lower than most sunflowers, they’ll make a nice border in front of some of the taller varieties.
Planting any of these sunflower varieties for wildlife habitats will help create or sustain them. Start browsing the internet or catalogues for seeds that interest you. Make sure they sunflower varieties are good for pollination. You may also like: 7 Uses for Sunflowers and Soak Up the Rain.
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