Make Room For Sunflowers

Is there a happier flower than the Helianthus? Sow now to enjoy their golden faces in borders and containers, says Hazel Sillver

- Hazel Sillver

WHEN I was very small, my parents gave me my own little section of border, which I sowed – to my father’s horror – with sunflowers. Up they soared, like Jack’s beanstalk, blocking the light that fell through the windows onto his seedling trays, until eventually they burst into boom – each one a giant disc of cheer. It was not long before he commandeered the patch and the sunflowers were replaced with lilies.