By Linda Wiggen Kraft,
Green & Growing Editor
Now is the time to plant the most magical garden space for children and adults, a sunflower house or room. Imagine a house or room with walls made of sunflowers and a ceiling of morning glories. Each morning the easterly facing sunflowers greet the day and blue trumpets of glory welcome the sun. If we could all be so lucky to spend some days and nights in such a home. But we can.
Growing this magical garden space was made famous in the book Sunflower Houses: Inspiration from the Garden – A Book for Children and Their Grown-Ups by Sharon Lovejoy, first published in 1991. This book is still available in libraries and used book stores. The author collected gardening stories from elderly women and men. One woman described growing up in Kansas where each summer her mother scratched out the rectangular outline of a house in the garden dirt, leaving an opening to enter in. Then sunflower and morning glory seeds were planted along the outline of this “house”. As the strong stalks of the sunflowers grew, they supported the vines. When the sunflowers were tall enough, strings were placed across the ceiling space and the morning glories grew across.
There is a children’s book titled Sunflower Houses by Eve Bunting that tells the story from a child’s view of planting a sunflower house without the morning glories. In this story it is a children only space. The child describes the passage of time from planting seeds in spring to harvesting seeds in the fall. This book is available in libraries and bookstores.
Most sunflower houses are grown with familiar tall annual big headed sunflower seeds, helianthus annuus, which are native to the Americas. Mammoth sunflower seeds are most often used. There are other sunflower-like plants that can be used. A native perennial (silphium perfoliatum) commonly called Cup Plant with small composite sunflower like flowers and very strong tall stems can also be used. Cup Plant grows about 8 feet tall. It is called Cup Plant because the area where the leaves and stem meet holds water like a cup, thereby providing moisture for birds and insects. Cup Plant is considered one of the best plants to attract birds and insects by providing food, shelter and water.
Space, sun and seeds or plants are needed for a sunflower house or room. If using the perennial Cup Plant, it is best to buy already growing plants. The outline of the house or room can be square, rectangular, round or oval. Leave a space for an opening to get in and out. The space can be large enough for a chair or bench to be placed inside, or small enough for only children to fit inside. Lots of sunlight is needed for these plants to grow tall and strong. If planting morning glories, plant at the same time as the sunflower seeds. For a morning glory ceiling, attach string across the space when the sunflowers are tall so the morning glory vines can grow across. The inside floor of the house, or room, can be filled with compost, mulch or wood chips. All make a soft place to sit or place something to sit on.
In my own gardens, I don’t have a sunflower house, but there are many sunflowers and Cup Plants. This year I will grow morning glories next to these plants so they can climb and bloom next to the yellow blossoms. They will remind me of sunflower houses.
Linda Wiggen Kraft is a landscape designer of holistic/organic gardens. She is an artist and creativity workshop leader. She is teaching an all- day “Fantasy & Real Flower Art” workshop Oct 18th. Her ceramic jewelry and pottery are available online and at www.gardendistrictstl.com. Find out more, subscribe to her blog and Instagram at
www.creativityforthesoul.com Call her at 314 504-4266