Description
4 inch bright golden yellow flowers in elongated clusters bloom in August and September and are great fresh cut flowers. Maximilian sunflower is easily grown and typically grows 4 to 8 feet in height depending on soil conditions. It likes average soil with medium moisture and full sun and is a useful food source for both birds and butterflies. Plant Maximilian Sunflower as an accent plant in the back border of the flower garden, near a fence row, or in a meadow planting with native prairie grasses.
Native maximilian sunflowers are easy to grow native wildflowers that occur naturally in meadows, dry or moist prairies, and ditches from Minnesota and British Columbia, South to Missouri, Texas, and Wyoming, and has naturalized in the east. Asteraceae (Aster Family)
A branching perennial herb, growing from a stout rhizome and reaches heights from one half to three meters. The slender, tall, erect stems and alternately-arranged leaves are covered in rough hairs.
The lance-shaped leaves are narrow, pointed, folded down the midvein, and up to 30 centimeters long on large plants.
The flower heads are surrounded at the base by pointed green phyllaries which often stick straight out and curl at the tips. The center is filled with yellow tipped brown disc florets and the circumference is lined with bright yellow ray florets 2 to 4 centimeters long.