What it is
Maximilian Sunflower (Helianthus maximiliani) is in the Asteraceae (Aster) family. A wall of gold every October, from a native perennial sunflower that never needs replanting - seeds for the birds, tubers-adjacent roots for the soil, and armloads of cut flowers.
How to grow it
It wants full sun, water it low, and give it any - clay to sand soil. Target a soil pH around 6.0-8.0. Space plants about 24-36 in apart. Expect roughly Blooms Sept-Oct; established year 2. Hardy native perennial.
How it's used
Maximilian Sunflower is used: seeds (small but edible); young shoots cooked.
🔎 How to identify it
- Narrow folded gray-green leaves on tall stalks
- Dozens of 3-inch gold flowers up the top third of each stem
- Fall bloom when little else flowers
Edibility
How to grow & propagate maximilian sunflower
Everything I've worked out about starting this one, keeping it alive through a Texas year, and turning one plant into many — free.
How to propagate maximilian sunflower
The daisy family is a seed family — those flower heads are seed factories, and most members come up fast and willing from direct sowing. The perennial members (coneflower, black-eyed Susan, the native sunflowers) also clump up over a few years and can be lifted and split in fall or early spring to make free plants and keep the center from dying out.
Growing maximilian sunflower in Texas
Give it full sun and any - clay to sand soil. Match the spot to the plant and most of the battle is already won.
Because it's a perennial, the work is mostly up front. Get it sited and established and it comes back on its own year after year — one of the best returns on effort in the whole garden.
Once it's rooted in, this is a low-water plant — overwatering does more harm than drought here. Water deeply to establish, then back off and let it prove how tough it is.
Harvesting
Figure on roughly blooms sept-oct; established year 2 before you're harvesting. The part you're after: seeds, young spring shoots.
Making more for free
Every seed we sell is open-pollinated, which means you can save your own from the best plants and it'll grow true next year. Let a few of your strongest plants finish and go to seed, dry it fully, and store it cool and dark. That's the whole point of heirlooms — buy once, grow forever.
Part of the free Texas Roots plant database, compiled by Jordan Polasek from his greenhouse in El Campo, Texas. Free to read and share. If it helped, the best thanks is to grow something.