Trial Started: 2005

Year of Trial: First (from 2005 report)

Good Qualities

Bright color (8); Very uniform (3); Nice flower size; Two week earlier than 'Sunrich Orange'; Consumers loved it; They sell out at farmer's market at 1.00 - 2.00 stem; Good stems; Same as most 'Pro Cut'; Light green center; All bloomed within 4 days of each other; Stem strength, long lasting; Nice 4 foot height; Early; Nice cut flower with good stem length, and quick harvest period - had excellent germination both in transplant and direct seeding - would definitely grow this again for the color, plants were taller than 35 inches but that height worked best for cutting; A really nice looking orangey-yellow sunflower with a light yellow center; very fresh and vibrant-looking, opened uniformly, fairly quickly, and continued to grow to about 6 or 7 inch diameter, A quick turn-around sunflower. Pollenless. Single branched; Great mixer - nice texture in flower; Nice flower, I liked them - fresh looking.

Problems

Delicate petals (2); Looks different than the rest of the Pro Cut series with its long petals and rounded disc; Petals don't open out completely, tends to form cylinder around center; Also tendency for ends of petals to bleach in the sun; Very susceptible to midge (most of our planting was un-useable) time of the year??; Unstable neck in post harvest, especially vulnerable to insect damage/ head irregularities, fat stems; Too short; Florist and consumers like the darker sunflowers best but they still sell well; We had lots of either brown stink bugs (bad) or the good look-alikes Spined soldier bugs on these, also corn rootworm beetle and cucumber beetle, but very little insect damage ensued owing to our early-cut schedule; Hard to keep up with bugs on sunflowers in our location without routine pesticide applications; Too large of flower head for typical arrangement in home; Bugs; Low germination %; Florists don't like green centers, cucumber beetles like them a lot - don't usually have problems with them so early in the season, maybe just because it was so hot and dry this year.

Postharvest

Used Floralife; Harvest in plain water; We cut them early, just as the petals started to color up and lift, before insects could get at them! - we used warm water and Floralife, heads grew visibly larger as they continued to open, customers liked the exceptionally long vase-life, we provided them with Floralife and the instructions to change out water every other day; Pick when just unfolding petals.

Comments

Similar to 'Sunrich Gold'; Looks like a marigold without the fragrance; We like to sell a grouping of 4 sunflowers encircling a bunch of mixed grass, so especially like late- season sunflowers - these came along in late season with excellent timing and uniformity, a really pretty sunflower in many respects!; Nothing too special; Very tall could cut much longer stems; Would be great in mixes, no good in own bunches at my market, I loved the color!; Despite problems growing them, there is a big demand for locally grown sunflowers in our market, especially among upscale event florists; All of the 'Pro Cut' are uniform and very programmable for continuous production; Both 'Pro Cut' sunflower varieties grew well to about 6 feet tall, and with 8 in. diameter blooms - my favorite is the 'Pro Cut Yellow' with the lemon yellow centers, this will definitely be added to my list of sunflowers to continue growing.