Sunflowers Forever
A while back, I picked up a mystery plant from one of the tables at a plant swap. I plopped it in the ground and almost forgot about it. Over the summer it grew to nearly 5 feet with no sign of budding, but the stout, sinewy stem and narrow, willowy leaves were attractive. At autumn’s end, the plant erupted with a profusion of gorgeous yellow flowers—about 2 inches wide with a brown center like black-eyed Susans. I finally located the plant in Peter Loewer’s “Tough Plants for Tough Places”: the willow-leaved sunflower, Helianthus salicifolius. It is among several native perennial sunflowers that are, as Loewer puts it, “akin to many American originals: tough, rugged and like the American skyscraper, tall and bold.” The North Carolina Botanical Garden has selected a cousin of the willow-leaved sunflower, the swamp sunflower (H. angustifolius), as the 2007 Wildflower of the Year, calling it “the giant exclamation point at the end of the growing season.” As its name suggests, swamp sunflower lives in the wild in swamps, marshes and savannas, but it will thrive in wet to average soil in gardens. Give it plenty of room in full sun at the back of the border or in meadow plantings. Mature plants can exceed 6 feet tall by 4 feet wide, but you can prune the plant back by half in June without sacrificing any floral display. Otherwise, you might try the dwarf varieties ‘First Light’ (4 feet tall) or ‘Low Down’ (about 1 foot tall).