Sic Transit Tithonia
If you’ve been reading this blog, you know I’m in love with Mexican Sunflower (Tithonia rotundifolia), with its intense orange flowers that draw butterflies like a magnet.
However, we cannot be blind to the flaws of those whom we love. This past week I learned about such a flaw.
Namely, in rich soil Tithonia will grow to massive proportions. In my driveway border it had reached 7-8′. According to the Missouri Botanic Garden’s website, its normal height is 4-6′.
When it gets so big, it cannot stand up to pounding rain. The stems are thick but not flexible. They crack but do not bend if the weight and force of the water is great enough.
And that is what happened to my Tithonia. Of the four plants I had originally in the Driveway Border, only one now survives. I’ve staked the survivor to a 10′ length of rebar.
Fortunately the Driveway Border is so stuffed with plants I think it still looks reasonably full.
There is also one Tithonia in the Edibles/Cutting Bed, but it stayed a normal size and did not suffer any cracked stems.
In any case, in late August the Tithonia is definitely starting to decline – there are fewer blooms and the foliage is showing signs of decay.
I’m not giving up on Tithonia. I will definitely plant it again next year, but if it grows much bigger than 6′, I will stake it. Like so many of our loved ones, there are times when Tithonia needs support.
Have you learned anything about the flaws of any beloved plants this year?
gardeninacity 
Thanks for letting us know it will get huge with rich soil. Now I know what to do next summer when I grow it. We get very little rain in the summer, so maybe mine will stay tall.
We have had lots of summer rain, and that has probably contributed to the excess height.
I made him cut all the flowers off that Tithonia before he took it to the compost pile, so we could have a bouquet.
It is a beautiful flower, but wouldn´t it help to cut it down a third before it starts to flower? Then it would probably make more stems on the side, and be more stable. I have done that to some of my helianthemum.
I’m not sure if cutting back would help with this plant. It doesn’t seem to work very well with annual sunflowers.
That’s such a shame – they were so lovely. Good luck with staking next year. I wonder if you could try cutting them back early in the season. It works with so many tall plants.
I might try it on one and see if it works.
Oh Jason, rain is a blessing and an annoyance when its too heavy. Having read your post and in the manner of a gardener I am thinking of your compost bins, do you have a several on the go?
I have two, so that is always one place I can put plant debris.
They look beautiful in your front border. I think you are being a little unfair, this is a plant from Mexico as its name implies and so has certain requirements. there’s nothing wrong with growing a plant that doesn’t really suit your conditions (we all do it) but you can’t blame the plant for growing taller and therefore being prone to rain and wind damage when the conditions are wetter and richer. I think this plant would be perfect in my garden! So many of the plants I admire in yours would struggle to survive here.
I still love Tithonia and intend to grow it next year. I’m just going to some preventive staking if it looks like it will get overgrown like it did this year.
And I can assure you that I’m mad about them too especially since they look so fantastic in your garden. For next year I’d love some and hope I’ll be able to get some 🙂
I have seen them growing in Giverny so there must be seeds available.
Did you make a bouquet to bring in the house?? Gorgeous orange blossoms. Classic sunflowers seem to have the same stem structure (no flexibility), so I’ve had several vases on the windowsill over the summer due to wild thunder storms. I’d like to try some of these… think I’ll look for some seed, where did you get yours?
I actually bought seedlings at a local nursery. Given my travel schedule in spring it’s hard to care for indoor seeds at home. And we did make a bouquet, it was nice!
Beautiful flowers. I have numerous clumps of Huron Sunrise grass and it flops over to where it becomes ugly. I’m considering just moving it to the borders to get it out of the beds.
It may do better in more sun.
The color is so rich I can see why you are smitten with Tithonia. I’ve had a similar experience with Rudbeckia hirta ‘Irish Eyes’–it never survives a strong rain and I always forget to deal with it until after the ensuing disaster.
I have seen that Rudbeckia – a green cone at the center, right?
Yes, that’s the one.
Yes that many sow themselves too freely, but I’ll still take them. Love this flower and its color.
if I excluded all the plants that self-sow energetically, I’d be missing half my favorite plants.
How glamourous it is, and such a shame it snapped, the pre view was sensational! Glad to hear you salvaged the flowers for a posy, it would have been a shame to scrap them.xxx
Well, at least the lost plants still had a good long season of bloom.
I love it too. I don’ t know why it doesn’t grow so tall for me. It is lovely but a bit stunted compared to yours. I never thought of staking it. I wonder if it doesn’t t get enough sun here.
How disheartening to have it damaged like that though. Do you save your own seed?
I don’t save the seed, I buy seedlings at a local nursery.
Thanks for this post. I grow sunflowers at the back of my vegetable garden, and have been considering replacing them with Mexican sunflower next year. But maybe I’l intermix them, so the fat stemmed sunflowers can help hold up their Mexican neighbors.
Intermixing is a good approach, i want to do more of that.
I have no tithonia in my garden and it’s fortunately because I have no a large space for it!
You definitely want a big space for this plant.
This is one plant that I’ve never grown. The flowers remind me of dahlias. Is there a shorter variety maybe?
I’ve been told that there is, but I haven’t seen it.
My zinnia bend a lot, too, which drives me nuts. Next year I’m growing a dwarf tithonia so I hope it stays more upright. But in a strong storm, everything’s fair game to end up on the patio or grass.
It’s true a really bad storm can do in almost any plant. I’m sure you will love the dwarf tithonia next year.
I’m still determined to try them next year! There’s a dwarf strain, but you might as well grow marigold then… I love the height, and risk is just part of gardening. Luckily we won’t lose the farm if the tithonia gets rained out!
You should definitely try them. You don’t know yet how they will respond to the conditions in your garden. Given that you have thriving sunflowers I would bet they will do well. Just be prepared to do some staking if needed.
Hello Jason, sorry to read about the disaster, but I wonder how fertile and rich your soil must be for them to grow so large. Is there a place in the garden where the soil isn’t so well conditioned or where there is perhaps a bit more shade that could be an ideal spot to put them? At first I thought they were dahlias since the flowers look so similar.
You’re a red blooded American male–did you not try duct tape?
I should have staked the volunteer sunflower in my veggie garden much earlier than I tried to this summer. The very day I carried a stake out to it, I found it had bent over to the ground, with its outer stem cracked and broken. It was not completely severed, so I left it as it was. Happy to say it did not die, but went on to flourish and bloom down there near the ground.
I hope you at least brought cut some of those unfortunate Tithonia to bring into the house and enjoy in vases!
Duct (or as I like to say, duck) tape! Why didn’t I think of that?