Tall, bright sunflowersmake a beautiful summer garden border or background. Growing sunflowers is easy enough, but with over 80 species of sunflowers, choosing one or two varieties that you love can be more challenging.

Tall, bright sunflowers make a beautiful summer garden border or background. Growing sunflowers is easy enough, but with over 80 species of sunflowers, choosing one or two varieties that you love can be more challenging.

Sunflowers are known for being tall, black-and-yellow flowers, but there’s more to them than that. Here’s the scoop on some popular sunflower varieties:

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• Maximillian Sunflower: Instead of a single flower on top, this tall perennial sunflower variety produces multiple 3-inch flowerheads along its stem.

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• Sunny Smile: A dwarf annual that gets no more than 12 to 15 inches tall. Good for indoor or container growing.

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• Moonshadow: An medium-sized sunflower annual that produces 4-inch flowers with light yellow, almost white petals.

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• The Joker: Grows to 5 to 6 feet tall, with 6-inch blooms featuring a red and gold double starburst.

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• Claret Hybrid: Produces 6-inch deep red blooms that do not fade in the sunlight.

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• cherry Rose: Fast-blooming dwarf sunflower. Produces multiple 3 to 4 inch cherry red flowers with yellow tips on medium-height plants.

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• Giganteus: Produces mammoth 1-foot flowers on 12 to 14 foot stalks.