This opportunistic hybrid is blooming the second year.

As a young girl, I was sunflower crazy. Once I got my own plot of land, the first flowers I planted were sunflowers. I love their bright (or muted) colors, their height, and the way they can make me smile. Many people around the world are familiar with this flower, but did you know these facts about them?

Yes, Nursery Lady, perennial sunflowers do exist.

I asked about these once and the lady at the nursery looked at me like I was crazy. Helianthus maximilianii (or Maximilian’s sunflower) is the genus of these North American perennials, which are commonly used in xeriscaping and typically have numerous yellow flower heads. The plants are named after a German prince and naturalist, Prince Maximilian, who led an expedition into the Americas in the 1800s. I love them because they come back year after year, unlike the annual hybrids, which do self-seed but get smaller and stranger each year. Also, they attract beneficial wildlife to your garden.

Some sunflowers are weeds.

Although Kansas has adopted the sunflower as its state flower, many other states list wild, annual sunflower as a noxious weed. It seems that the moisture-loving flower hinders crop production and readily asserts itself where it’s not wanted. Check with your local weed district to ensure that you’re not propagating illegal sunflowers.

Sunflowers can be profitable.

Sunflowers don’t just provide seeds for baseball players who have given up chewing tobacco. Growing sunflowers for their oil or seed is a big industry. Sunflowers can be used to produce sunbutter, a peanut butter alternative. The oil is low in saturated fat also sold commercially for cooking.

Sunflowers can clean up toxins.

Phytoremediation is the term used for green plants that suck up toxins from the soil. After the Chernobyl disaster, sunflowers were used to remove radioactive elements out of contaminated water areas. Of course, they didn’t just throw the sunflowers on a compost pile afterwards. The contaminated sunflowers were treated as radioactive waste. Sunflowers are naturally heavy feeders, but this is just another benefit of these great plants!