Sunflowers and hardiness?

[Strepsy]

I hope someone is in the know. Although the instructions on my sunflowers say to sow indoors and transplant when frosts have ended, or, to sow direct in late spring - they are also labelled 'hardy annual'.

I have a nearly 4ft sunflower in my windowsill and had thought that I couldn't plant out till after the risk of frost but maybe I was wrong? Confused now.

[Alice]

You cannot plant your sun flower out until after the last frosts. In your part of the country you may already be there. Here in Scotland we are not guaranteed frost free until the end of May, although it might not happen. Sometimes we just have to gamble on it. You can harden off your plants long before then so that they are ready for planting when all risk of frost is past. Although plants are labelled hardy annuals it doesn't mean that seedlings which have not been hardened off can be planted out. Haven got your sun flower this far, molecoddle it for a few more days before planting.

[eskymo]

I planted my sunflowers out the other day as I couldn't wait any longer. Hopefully we won't be getting any more frost in Fife. We had a terrential downpour this morning, it was so heavy that you could hardly see the garden through the window. So I've just been out and covered all my sunflowers with plastic cloches to hopefully protect them from the slugs and snails that will come out in the rain.

I snipped a few in half while I was out there and stamped on a few snails too, so hopefully they will be OK.

[Strepsy]

Thanks Alice. I will be cautious I think and wait a while. Half my problem is that they're really big and can't be covered over easily. Good idea for the cloches eskymo, I've been saving our drinks bottles for slug/snail collars for my sunflowers

And here is my biggest, with 4'9 DD.

[WiZeR]

i've only just sown mine inside, forgot all about them!

[Sinta]

I just sown mine outside yesterday. Packet said to sow directly outdoors. I hope they survive Would love some of that sunshine to be brought into my plot.

[SueA]

Stepsy, I think if you harden them off by just putting them out during the day & bringing them in at night for a few days they should then be O.K. to plant outside. They are hardy in that you can sow them directly outdoors but if you have raised them indoors they need hardening off & shouldn't go out if a hard frost is likely.