Velvet Queen
The best all-round sunflower for an Irish garden. Short enough to stay standing, and it flowers for months.
Velvet Queen carries deep mahogany red petals shading to bronze around a dark centre, on a branching plant of around 1.5m to 1.8m rather than a single towering stem. That branching habit is what makes it the sensible choice here. Instead of one flower on one vulnerable pole, you get a succession of smaller blooms on a bushier plant that shrugs off weather a giant cannot, and every flower you cut brings on another. It is one of the best sunflowers for a vase and it still leaves plenty of seed for the birds.
Quick facts
- Botanical name
- Helianthus annuus
- Type
- Open pollinated
- Category
- Branching, cut flower
- Difficulty
- Easy, good first crop
- Hardiness
- Half hardy, protect from frost
- In Ireland
- Grows outdoors unprotected
- Germination
- 5 to 14 days at 15 to 22C
- Sowing depth
- 2cm
- Spacing
- 45cm apart, 60cm between rows
- Height
- 1.8m
- Position
- Full sun
- Containers
- Grows well in pots
- Sowing to flowering
- 11 to 18 weeks
- In flower
- July to October
Sowing and harvest calendar for Velvet Queen
Months shaded below are the reliable windows for Irish conditions.
Where to buy Velvet Queen sunflower seeds in Ireland
Irish suppliers that stock this, so postage stays domestic and seed arrives in time to sow. These are plain links, not paid placements.
Garden centres and mixed retailers
- Mr Middleton Irish Eighteen sunflower varieties, the widest choice here Mail order arm of a long established Mary Street shop, carries the familiar named varieties the organic specialists skip. Visit Mr Middleton , Co. Dublin
- Johnstown Garden Centre Irish Large branded flower seed range Third generation family business near Naas with the widest branded range, though popular varieties sell out by midsummer. Visit Johnstown Garden Centre , Co. Kildare
Why it suits Ireland
Height is the enemy in an Irish garden and this variety simply has less of it to lose. At 1.5m to 1.8m with a branching frame and a spread of foliage low down, it presents far less leverage to the wind than a 3m single stem carrying one heavy head, so it stays upright in weather that flattens the giants.
The long flowering season is the second Irish argument. Our summers are unreliable, so a plant that produces flowers over three months is a better bet than one that stakes everything on a single bloom in August. If that fortnight happens to be wet, a Velvet Queen carries on regardless.
It also produces pollen, unlike the pollen-free strains bred for the florist trade, so bees work it steadily and there is real seed in the heads afterwards.
Growing notes
Sow indoors in March or April, one seed per 9cm pot on a bright windowsill, or direct outdoors in May once the soil has warmed. Harden off pot-raised plants over a week before planting out from mid-May.
Space about 45cm apart in full sun, in ordinary garden soil improved with a little compost. It does not need the heavy feeding a giant does, and overfed plants make soft growth that leans.
Protect from slugs until the plants are 20cm tall, then they can look after themselves.
For cutting, take stems in the early morning just as the flower opens, cut low into the plant to encourage strong replacement shoots, strip the lower leaves and put them straight into deep water. Around a week in the vase is normal. Keep cutting or deadheading through August and September to keep the succession going, then stop in early October and let the last heads set seed and stand for the birds.
Common questions
Are the flowers really red?
They are a deep velvety mahogany red rather than a pillar box red, and the colour varies between plants in the same packet, from rich burgundy through to a bronze or almost copper tone. That variation is normal for an open-pollinated strain rather than a fault, and it is part of why the flowers look so good cut in a bunch together.
How long does it keep flowering?
From roughly late July until the first serious frosts, which in most of Ireland means well into October. Because it branches, the plant produces flowers in succession rather than all at once, and cutting or deadheading the spent blooms keeps new ones coming. That is a much longer display than a single-headed giant gives you.
Does it need staking?
Less than a giant, but yes, do stake it. At 1.5m or more in soft wet Irish ground a laden plant will lean, and a cane or a light stake with one or two ties is usually enough. Planting a group of three or four together at about 45cm apart means they lend each other support, which looks better than a row of individually staked plants.
More sunflowers to consider
Russian Giant
Open pollinated / Tall single-headed
The one children want to grow. Sow it early, stake it properly, and give it the most sheltered spot you have.
Growing notes and stockistsTeddy Bear
AGMOpen pollinated / Dwarf double
The sunflower for a container, a balcony or a small child, and the only one that ignores Irish wind entirely.
Growing notes and stockistsLemon Queen
Open pollinated / Branching, pale lemon
The one to grow for bees and for cutting. Soft lemon flowers over months rather than one loud yellow head.
Growing notes and stockists