Ornamental Sunflower
Red Sun Sunflower is a stunning heirloom annual that transforms summer gardens with its rare and captivating blooms. These upright plants grow 60 to 72 inches tall and produce branching stems topped with 5 to 6 inch flower heads in a mesmerizing palette of smoky burgundy, bronze, and copper tones. Hardy from zones 4 to 10 and ready to harvest in 100 to 109 days, Red Sun delivers one of the rarest sunflower colors you can grow, paired with chocolate-seeded centers that birds find irresistible throughout the season.
Full Sun
Low To Moderate
4-10
72in H x ?in W
Perennial
High
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Red Sun stands apart for its uncommon color palette, deep burgundy and bronze petals create a smoky, sophisticated look that feels almost unexpected in a sunflower. The variety grows tall and branching rather than producing a single massive head, giving you multiple flowers per plant over an extended season. Those chocolate-colored seed centers aren't just beautiful; they're a genuine bird magnet that keeps wildlife visiting your garden well into autumn. Open-pollinated and heirloom genetics mean you can save seeds year after year, making this a sunflower that repays itself generously.
Red Sun Sunflower is primarily grown as an ornamental cut flower and garden showpiece, though the seed production is secondary. The variety excels as a cut flower, blooming over an extended period thanks to its branching habit, which provides multiple stems perfect for bouquets or arrangements. The chocolate seed centers mature reliably and attract birds throughout fall, making it valuable for wildlife gardeners and those who enjoy encouraging natural pollinators and seed-eating birds into their landscape.
Direct sow Red Sun seeds into the garden as soon as the soil warms to at least 55°F. Sow seeds where you want them to grow, as sunflowers establish strong root systems and don't transplant well. Space seeds according to your variety's mature width, thinning seedlings to the appropriate spacing once they've developed their first true leaves.
For cut flowers, harvest in the morning just after the blooms open, using a clean knife and placing stems immediately in clean vases with a few drops of chlorine bleach in the water to extend vase life. For seed harvest, allow flower heads to mature fully, watching for the bracts (outer leafy structures) to begin shriveling, this signals peak seed maturity. Cut the mature heads from the stem and hang them upside down in a barn or shed to finish drying. Once completely dry, rub the seeds off the heads. For seed eating, note that gray and white striped sunflower seeds are traditionally preferred for consumption, though Red Sun produces chocolate-colored seeds ideal for bird feeding and seed saving.
Red Sun's branching habit produces multiple flower heads naturally without intervention. However, cutting the mature central flower head once it opens will actively promote side-shoot flower production, extending your bloom season well into fall. Cut flowers in the morning just after they open using a clean knife for the longest vase life.
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“Red Sun is an open-pollinated heirloom sunflower whose exact origins are rooted in traditional seed-saving culture, though specific development details are limited in available records. What makes it significant is that it represents a deliberate selection for ornamental traits, the unusual burgundy and bronze coloring, preserved and distributed by heirloom seed custodians. The variety has been maintained through successive generations of gardeners who valued both its aesthetic uniqueness and its reliability as a self-perpetuating crop, embodying the heirloom ethic of seed stewardship.”