Rewilding My Lot

Maximilian Sunflowers (Helianthus maximiliani) grow very tall if not interfered with. Here’s a photo of my cluster in October 2025, blooming for the first time. The stalks grew 10-12 feet and splayed out in a way that was not helpful in my small space.

So in June this year, I experimented with a “Chelsea Chop,” in that when the plants had grown to about 4 feet, I cut them down to 2 feet and tied the bundle up. The aim of this is to mimic two things that happen when these plants are in their native setting of a grassland prairie: deer browsing when the stems are short, and support from adjacent clump grasses that are 4-6 feet tall.

The sunflowers continued to grow well. Here’s the clump in September 2026 (below). By this time I had added a second tie about 4 feet from the ground.

I noticed the first Maximilian Sunflower bloom this year on October 7, 2026, and soon after that there were a profusion of flowers. Here’s a bee feeding from one.

I will definitely do the Chelsea Chop again. The shorter stems are more manageable in my space, and although my tie support partially failed (I’ll try to do better next time), instead of splaying out in all directions, the clump cascaded in just one direction and wasn’t really in the way.