Flower Teddy Bear: How to Grow and Care for Teddy Bear Sunflower

Flower Teddy Bear – If you like sunflowers but don’t have the room for large plants with plate-sized blooms, a teddy bear sunflower may be the ideal solution for your situation. Flowering from mid-summer until the first frost in fall, the sunflower ‘Teddy Bear’ is a short, bushy plant with fluffy, golden-yellow flowers that occur in clusters on a short, bushy stem.

Teddy Bear sunflower plants reach a mature size of 4 to 5 feet in height (1.4 m.). Is it possible that we have peaked your curiosity about cultivating Teddy Bear flowers? Then continue reading for more information about Teddy Bear Sunflowers.

How to Grow a Teddy Bear Sunflower (with Pictures)

Flower Teddy Bear may be grown from seed and are not difficult to grow. The most essential thing to remember when planting sunflower seeds is to choose a location where your Teddy Bear sunflower plants will get enough sunshine. Well-drained soil is also a must for any sort of sunflower, regardless of the variety.

You should only plant Teddy Bear sunflower seeds if you are certain that the risk of frost has passed.Before planting sunflowers, amend the soil with a substantial quantity of compost, well-rotted manure, or other organic matter by digging it into the top 6 to 8 inches (15–20 cm) of the soil.

Sow seeds at a depth of 12 inches in clusters of three to four seeds (1.25 cm). When the real leaves develop on the plants, thin them to a spacing of 18 to 24 inches (40–60 cm) apart.

Continue to water as required to maintain a wet but not soggy soil condition until your sunflower ‘Teddy Bear’ seedlings are established.

In most cases, sunflowers do not need fertilizer. However, if your soil is deficient in nutrients, incorporate a small amount of time-release fertilizer into the soil during planting time.

Teddy Bear Sunflower Care

Sunflowers are drought resistant once established; however, they perform best when the soil is not completely depleted of moisture.When the soil is dry, water extensively to a depth of around 2 inches as a general rule (5 cm). Over watering and wet, poorly drained soil should be avoided. If at all feasible, water the plant from the ground up, since overhead watering might encourage the spread of some plant diseases, such as rust.

Weeds should be pulled or hoed as soon as they emerge. A weedy environment will deprive your sunflower “Teddy Bear” plant of needed moisture and nutrients. A layer of mulch will help to keep moisture in the soil and will also help to reduce the development of weeds. However, it is important to ensure that the mulch does not stack up against the stem, since damp mulch might encourage rot.

Keep an eye out for cutworms on your Teddy Bear sunflower plants. If the infestation looks minor, remove the bugs by hand and place them in a bucket filled with soapy water to kill them. If you have a significant infestation, you should use a pyrethrin-based pesticide. If you have a problem with weevils, pyrethrin-based pesticides may be quite helpful.

Flower Teddy Bear Growing Tips

This little sunflower variety responds to all of the recommendations in our guide on growing sunflowers.

To summarize, H. annuus grows in a place that receives at least six to eight hours of direct sunlight every day in full sunlight. Plants need soil that is organically rich, loose, and well-draining.

Here are a few pointers for growing this specific cultivar:

1. Plant Seeds at the Correct Time

No matter how many volunteers you may have seen growing under your bird feeder, the best time to plant vegetables in the garden is when the soil temperature is between 65 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit. This is the ideal temperature for germination to occur successfully. Seeds may also be started indoors as an alternative.

2. Make Enough Room for Them

“Teddy Bear” sunflowers may not reach the great heights of some of their H. annuus cousins, but they have a bushy growth habit that makes them attractive to bees. Plants should be spaced 18–24 inches apart.

3.Preserve the health of young plants.

Birds, rabbits, squirrels, and other small animals are attracted to the seedlings and enjoy eating them. If you have a problem with marauding birds in your garden, cover them with row covers or bird netting to keep them out.

4. Give them enough time to mature.

It is merely a very basic rule of thumb that smaller food plants grow more rapidly than larger edible plants. In this instance, comparable to a small winter squash, ‘Teddy Bear’ sunflowers bloom for the same amount of time as many of their much bigger cousins that bloom for far longer periods of time. Although they are small in size, they need around 75 days from the time of planting to develop their stunning flowers.

5. On a regular basis, deadhead

It is important to clip wasted blooms on a regular basis in order to stimulate the stems to produce additional blossoms throughout the season.

6. Do not use pesticides on edible crops.

If you plan to eat the petals or the seeds of the plant, avoid using pesticides and herbicides at any point during the growth phase.