Any Ideas To Save Uprooted Sunflowers?

[SunFly]

A few days ago we had a storm with high winds and it blew the corn completely flat to the ground. It took a couple of days but now it's standing back up. This same thing happened last year so I figured it would come back to life this year too. This just amazes me and I wish I had taken photos.

A couple of my sunflowers uprooted and fell over too. I tried to stand them back up but I think they are just too top heavy. I might have managed to save one, but it's leaning. I love my sunflowers, so I may try standing the other one up again. The flowers on it still look good, so at least some of the roots are still attached.

To keep the sunflower upright, I placed bricks around the bottom of the plant on the soil to keep it from falling over. Does anyone have any more ideas?

 

[Chuck]

If you have 3 tent stakes or any stakes at all just pound them into the ground equidistant a foot or three from the plant, stand the plant up and tie it with strong string and then water in the base of the plant

 

[SunFly]

Right after I posted I went back out to the garden to look at the sunflowers. The one I thought I had lost had produced more flowers and they look healthy. I was trying to figure out what to do when I hit upon the stake idea myself. I went and got a metal stake we use for the electric fence and a piece of twine, and tied the plant to the stake like you suggested. I think it might have worked. If it looks like it's going to fall, I'll add more stakes on the other sides of the flower. I don't know if I can use this method for the other flower because it's right next to the yard and I don't want the stake to interfere with mowing the yard. But I may be able to place a couple of stakes in the garden side only to secure the flower. Thanks Chuck for your suggestion and since I didn't water the plant, I'll do that too.

 

[Chuck]

Right after I posted I went back out to the garden to look at the sunflowers. The one I thought I had lost had produced more flowers and they look healthy. I was trying to figure out what to do when I hit upon the stake idea myself. I went and got a metal stake we use for the electric fence and a piece of twine, and tied the plant to the stake like you suggested. I think it might have worked. If it looks like it's going to fall, I'll add more stakes on the other sides of the flower. I don't know if I can use this method for the other flower because it's right next to the yard and I don't want the stake to interfere with mowing the yard. But I may be able to place a couple of stakes in the garden side only to secure the flower. Thanks Chuck for your suggestion and since I didn't water the plant, I'll do that too.

Mow the lawn now and then stake it up. It should be OK to remove the stakes before you need to mow again. Just don't forget to get the soil wet. When the plant fell over it loosened up the soil around the roots and by getting it wet it will "tighten" up the soil around the roots again, plus with new root growth it should be as good as new within 2 weeks

 

[SunFly]

Well, I must not have had them staked very good because one of them fell over and the other one was leaning. So... I devised a new plan. I took the sunflowers to a totally different spot, that wasn't in the area that needs mowing, dug two deep holes and put them in their new spots. I did water them good and the next day we got a good rain. They seem to be doing fine in their new location because they're still getting new flowers.