On this week's Good Growing podcast, we welcome back horticulture educator Emily Swihart to finally talk about sunflowers! We discuss the history of sunflowers, some of their benefits to the environment and bees, what sunflowers we’ll be growing this year, and more. Watch us on YouTube: https://youtu.be/YLlwBnHp4qA Skip to what you want to know: 00:40 – Welcome Ken, and why isn’t Chris in Macomb? 01:45 – Welcome Emily 02:45 – An overview of sunflowers 04:00 – Sunflowers as food and a quick history of sunflowers 11:19 – Sunflower pollen benefits for bumble bees 12:50 – Effectiveness of honey bees and bumble bees on sunflowers 14:00 – Sunflowers as hyper accumulators (heavy metals) 17:45 – What do we need to think about when growing sunflowers? 22:20 – Do you grow sunflowers for cut flowers? 24:23 – What sunflowers were we growing at the Lukeman Garden and Education Center in Jacksonville? 25:40 – What sunflowers will Emily be growing in 2023? 26:45 – Sunrich Summer Provence 27:55 – ProCut White Nite and ProCut White Lite 29:25 – What sunflowers will Ken be growing in 2023? 30:55 – Short - Sunray yellow 31:11 – Medium – Soluna lemon, Gold & Silver, Italian white, Lemon queen, Evening sun, Seneca 32:23 – Giant - Arikara and Kong 34:00 – What site conditions do sunflowers need? Fertilizer? How to plant and dealing with critters 39:50 – More sunflowers Emily is growing in 2023 40:30 – Starburst Greenburst 41:30 – Goldy Double 42:40 – Strawberry blonde 43:20 – ProCut Plum 43:40 - Shock-O-Lat 44:15 – SunFil Purple 45:30 – Hopi black dye 47:13 – Are there fragrant sunflowers? 48:58 – Sunflowers are heliotropic 50:12 – Where is Chris planting sunflowers this year? 50:40 – A few problems in sunflowers 52:38 – Wrap-up, thank you’s, what’s up next week, and goodbye! What new vegetables are we growing in 2023 - https://youtu.be/hww7vEXP3_0 What new flowers are we growing in 2023 - https://youtu.be/q_HGNwhTvqE Contact us! Chris Enroth: cenroth@illinois.edu Ken Johnson: kjohnso@illinois.edu Emily Swihart: eswihart@illinois.edu Check out the Good Growing Blog: htps://go.illinois.edu/goodgrowing Subscribe to the weekly Good Growing email: https://go.illinois.edu/goodgrowingsubscribe Any products or companies mentioned during the podcast are in no way a promotion or endorsement of these products or companies. -- You can find us on most podcast platforms. SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/user-555304573 iTunes https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/good-growing/id1446630377 Stitcher https://www.stitcher.com/show/good-growing Tunein https://tunein.com/podcasts/Gardening/Good-Growing-p1187964/ Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/202u3siWExE1tTqrVgtmCR Vurbl https://vurbl.com/station/good-growing-4pljnNlUtyG/ Listen notes https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/good-growing-chris-enroth-cHLPMWpvEOG/ Ivy https://ivy.fm/podcast/good-growing-167902 Castbox https://castbox.fm/channel/Good-Growing-id4302614?country=us Google podcasts https://bit.ly/3AiYjTD