Dianna, The huge problem here (mid-Gulf Florida) are the Fruit Rats and the Squirrels that will dig up your Sunflower seeds the night after you plant them. If you are going right into the ground with the Sunflower seeds rather than using a germinating tray, sprinkle some Cayenne Pepper where you have planted them. Keeps them away for a while. I also found that Mint Extract mixed with water in a spray bottle works great too. It confuses their cute little noses.
Grow the Mint in your garden, harvest some, mix with water in a blender and pour over the seeds/plants.
Otherwise, use the germinating tray, (look up MicroGreen Germinating Tray on Amazon, about $12) to assure that you will be planting good, solid 6” Sunflower “plants” from your Solo cup, instead of the easy to eat seeds.
Also, I made my own “Germinating Trays”. Went to DollarTree and bought a bunch of 12x9x4” plastic trays with lids and some of the $Tree carpet rectangles. I cut the carpet into three sections per carpet rectangle, measured to fit the rounded corners of the tray. I put my copy paper over the carpet and put some water, not much, into the tray to soak the carpet/paper. Then the seeds.
This is a very cheap way to make a germinating tray, about $1.50/tray including the carpet compared to the $12 tray. The downside is you have to monitor the water level more often to make sure that it is not flooding the seeds or drying them out. You are looking for “dampness and humidity” in the closed tray to sprout the seeds. I mostly get my seeds from “SeedsNeeds” either direct or on Amazon.
If you are looking for “bulk” seeds, head to Walmart and buy “Parrot” Sunflower Seeds. They might not be all tall Sunflowers but you will get tons of nice flowers. By the way, Sunflower “bird” seed makes smaller size Sunflowers, sort of like Daisy’s. Perfect for a meadow appearance. ..Bob
I LOVE Dollar Tree - we FINALLY got one in my little Cow Town!
I like to grow the HUGE sunflowers like, ‘Kong’ or ‘Eartwalker’ and leave them up through seed stage for winter food for the birds.
Beau has ‘gifted’ me a field that is east of the house that he will ‘nuke’ so I can plant sunflowers and other flowers in there for the pollinators. He had been using it as a food plot for turkey & pheasants, but no luck so far.
Now that I want flowers in there, I’m sure the turkeys will be all over it, LOL!