The sunflowers, which i see as an intregral part of the veg garden at this time of year, as they are so high and add so much colour….matched only by the beans in our garden, have been both a success and a failure this year.
Why i hear you shout! Well, we planted two varieties – the standard varieties which shot up to about 10ft then fell over before flowering, and the amazing multicoloured variety called ‘Magic Roundabout.’ It is F1, but we only planted one of them, and it reached only 6ft, didn’t have a stupidly chunky stem and has produced almost 40 little sunflowers from the one stem….and is sprouting out all over the place. Definately a must for next year.
Ironic, however, is that the photo is of the generic sunflower.
Vegmonkey and the Mrs. 
The are great. pity I didn’t grow any this year.
We planted a mixed pack of sunflowers this year half in one bed half in another.
Half of the pack got eaten, strangely enough all in one bed.
The other bed full survived the slug attacked and grew with avengance. We now have a one bed full with sunflowers of mixed varieties. Some reaching 7-8ft, some red, and some lovely multi headed bushy types.
They really add some colour and height to our allotments. And all from a cheap packet of bargain seeds from the 99p shop! I agree sunflowers are a must.
Ill be growing them next year deffinately, but this time I wont need to buy any seeds, thats for sure!