Sunflower Vanilla Ice

Soft creamy-vanilla petals round a dark chocolate disc. Not white and not yellow but a warm-tinted cream, and it glows at dusk in a way a golden sunflower simply cannot.

What it does in a planting is specific and useful. Cream is a bridge. It ties warm colours to cool ones without belonging to either camp, so it settles a border that has both, and among pale flowers it adds warmth and weight. Next to the near-black 'Chocolate' it gives the highest contrast in the range.

Branching and multi-headed at 60 to 90cm, so you get a run of cutting stems rather than one flower.

Sow one seed per pot, because sunflowers make a taproot quickly and resent being disturbed or held in a small pot too long. Plant out late May or early June at 45 to 60cm. Slugs will strip young sunflower plants in a night, so protect them for the first two or three weeks. Water deeply at the base and feed fortnightly through midsummer.