Thank you all for your nice comments, acorns & thumbs.
This is one of
The best plants ever, though hard to find here.
We had seen one plant just off the road in Rancho Santa Fe,
and around the golf course there, but didn't know what it was.
Years later, luckily we saw one for sale at a tropical nursery....it was just a thin
single-stalk bean-pole 2 gallon plant for $15, which I thought was exorbitant, but got it anyway.
Glad I did.
It liked our soil & took off, reaching at least
12ft. I rooted 2 cuttings.
After the wildfires in 2007, we had to cut down 10 pine trees around the home. It left the side of the house "bare" looking. I planted the 2 rooted SFs, and in one year, they grew 8 ft, and provided a nice privacy screen.
Since then, they have produced many volunteers from seed. It isn't fussy about soil.
Just plain dirt, well drained if possible. Fairly drought tolerant.
We just cut them back in winter to 3-4 ft. It was still blooming when we cut it back last month.
The base of the mature plants are ~1 ft in diameter.
The only pests are mealy bugs & ants, though easy to treat, and don't seem
to slow them down.
Here is a slideshow of the Mexican Sunflower, starting with the view from
our guest bedroom on the 2nd floor. Most of the images were taken from there.
Hope you enjoy.
http://cal3d.com/NGA2019/MexSF...
Looks like rooted cuttings are available on Etsy ....4 cuttings for $16.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/5...
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