We had planned for 3 succession plantings of zinnias and sunflowers in our flower garden. Because my husband was so over zealous in his first planting of sunflowers and planted the entire bed instead of part of the bed, we had to pivot and decided on two total successions of sunflowers. We are going to use an extra bed that we had for the second succession. I’ve learned that with flower gardens, you need to be flexible with your plans! So, on June 19th, we planted our 3rd and final round of zinnias for this season and the second succession of sunflowers.

With the other two rows of zinnias, I planted them in the row with the same varieties and colors together. On the last row, I mixed all the seeds together and planted them. My brain loves order and consistency, but things in nature don’t grow by color order, so I’m trying to embrace my inner wildflower child and the randomness of it all.

In this succession, I did remember to add the Flower-tone first into the row before I placed the seeds. I’m not sure it will make a difference, but now I have a comparison row to see if it changes anything. I lightly covered the seeds with soil and watered them in.

For our second succession of sunflowers, we were fortunate enough to get Sunflower Steve seeds. I feel grateful to grow this amazing Van Gogh’s Fantasy mix and support Steve’s flower journey. I know we have helped his mission, but I truly feel like I have been given a gift. In addition to Van Gogh’s Fantasy, I also had enough room in the bed to plant the remaining ProCut sunflower seeds that were not planted in the first succession. Like the zinnias, I added Flower-tone, covered the seeds lightly, and watered them in. In 60 days or so, we should be swimming in these unique sunflower beauties!