{"id":7988,"date":"2015-09-04T01:00:14","date_gmt":"2015-09-04T05:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=7988"},"modified":"2015-09-04T12:16:48","modified_gmt":"2015-09-04T16:16:48","slug":"mid-summer-blooming-happy-days-sunflower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2015\/09\/04\/mid-summer-blooming-happy-days-sunflower\/","title":{"rendered":"Mid-Summer Blooming \u2018Happy Days\u2019 Sunflower"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Helianthus<\/a>

Helianthus ‘Happy Days’<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Showy<\/a>

Showy mid- to late-summer blooming<\/p><\/div>\n

The\u00a0cheerful golden yellow flowers of Happy Days sunflower (Helianthus<\/em> ‘Happy Days’)\u00a0should brighten your garden\u00a0during the\u00a0waning days of summer (USDA hardiness zones 5-9).<\/p>\n

This perennial sunflower has a long 4 to 6 week\u00a0blooming period. In its\u00a0first season new plants grow\u00a024-30 inches tall and almost as wide. In subsequent years, tack on an additional 12-18 inches in height. Its small size makes it a good choice\u00a0for a sunny garden\u00a0 or container.<\/p>\n

Helianthus ‘Happy Days’ produces long lasting 3 to 4 inch\u00a0diameter golden yellow flowers. In the spring the plant forms an upright mound of\u00a0broad lanceolate\u00a0dark-green leaves. Floral stems arise with double anemone-like centers and short ray petals around the base. No staking is needed as\u00a0flower stems are sturdy.<\/p>\n

Happy Days sunflowers are at\u00a0their best on an open, well-drained sunny site (minimum 5 hours of direct sunlight) and on\u00a0moist, compost-rich, well-drained soils. Feed at planting time or in early spring with\u00a0slow release fertilizer (examples: Osmocote\u2122, Nutrikote\u2122, or Milorganite\u2122).<\/p>\n

Cut\u00a0old dead stems back to the ground in late fall or leave for winter interest. Every 3-4 years sunflowers form\u00a0dense clumps\u00a0that\u00a0are\u00a0best divided while still dormant in early spring.\u00a0Digging and dividing old clumps\u00a0greatly improves\u00a0plant vigor.<\/p>\n

Flowers are excellent for cutting. They attract butterflies and hummingbirds; rabbits usually\u00a0leave sunflowers alone. Disease and insect problems are rare when sunflowers are properly sited. Sunflowers perform poorly winter soils are constantly\u00a0wet or soggy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0cheerful golden yellow flowers of Happy Days sunflower (Helianthus ‘Happy Days’)\u00a0should brighten your garden\u00a0during the\u00a0waning days of summer (USDA hardiness zones 5-9). This perennial sunflower has a long 4 to 6 week\u00a0blooming period. In its\u00a0first season new plants grow\u00a024-30 inches tall and almost as wide. In subsequent years, tack on an additional 12-18 inches in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[444,747,749,605,710,674,806,665,625,843,812,630,706,646,1243,1050,113,455],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7988"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7988"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7998,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7988\/revisions\/7998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}