Little Dorrit sunflowers

Every year I grow a few sunflowers. Sometimes I go for the big ones, sometimes red ones, and sometimes I grow some from an old sunflower head I brought back from the south of France a good few years back.

This year though I grew some Little Dorrits in a couple of galvanised dustbins in my front garden. I brought them on in some pots and then, when the tulips had finished flowering, I transplanted them and let them do their thing.

This is how they turned out:

They're really easy to grow and provide a good show from the middle of June through to the end of September.

I sowed my seeds in March. This is what I did:

1. I filled some flower pots with a general purpose, peat free compost. The pots I used were some 2 litre pots that I had left over from an earlier planting job.

2. I pushed the seeds - 2 seeds per pot - about 1 - 2 cm deep into the compost.

3. Then I gently watered the compost, placed them on my kitchen window sill and let them do their thing.

4. I kept an eye on them and when the compost looked dry I gave them another gentle water.

5. After a week or so they started to emerge from the compost and when they started to fill out in the pots I started to put them outside during the day to acclimatise them to living outdoors.

6. Once all risk of overnight frosts had passed, and once they were looking well established, I transplanted each of them into a pot of their own and let them carry on growing.

7. Then when I was ready to plant them up in their final positions I simply teased each plant out of the pot, dug a hole, popped them in and gave them a water.

All they require is to be planted in a sunny spot - the sunnier the better - and to be watered when the soil is dry. As they grow to no more than about 60 cm they don't really need staking.

They grow equally as well in a sunny border where they can be sown directly into the soil. If that's your plan then:

1. Rake the soil so that it's nice and fine - no stones or clumps.

2. Water the area.

3. Sow 2 seeds together every 30 cm.

4. The seedlings should appear after 2 or 3 weeks. Remove the weaker plant - transplant it if you want.

5. Keep watering them both until they're both well established.

Then what?

Well all I did was water them when the compost in the dustbin looked dry. And I simply sat back and enjoyed them!

Then when they started to look beyond their best I trimmed off the flowerheads and left some on my front wall for neighbours to take. I kept some flowerheads back, dried them and then used the seeds to feed the birds, and to have some seeds to plant again next year.

This is what they looked like at the beginning of November - next to some dahlias:

Why not give it a go? And I'd be delighted if you let me know how you get on! You can email me at hello@trugandlettuce.co.uk

Good luck!