Growing sunflower seeds can be fun. Sunflowers require rich soil, full sun, and shelter from the wind to fully mature. Most sunflowers grow tall and have large flower heads with yellow ray florets and purplish brown disk florets. The ray florets of sunflowers are sterile, and only the disk florets produce seeds.

All sunflowers are rapid-growing annuals.

Helianthus annuus belong to the Asteraceae family and are native to North America. North American archaeological sites dating from as early as 3,000 B.C. show remains of the sunflowers.

The sunflower now ranks second among all seed crops in the world as an important source of edible vegetable oil.