Sunflower seed question

Hi, I'm new to collecting seeds, but I'd like to try this year-I've gotten so much inspiration from everyone here at DG;) I'm growing Parks Van Gough sunflower mix and one of them I really like, pic below. I understand that hybrid plant seeds will probably not look like the parents, but there's nowhere I can find either on the package or Park's website, if these sunflowers are a hybrid. I didn't get any of the other colors shown on the van Gough pak, only this one and some sort of plain yellows:( My dumb question is, do you think these seeds will look like the parent? or revert back to something else? Thanks so much for any help!:)
Kathy


This message was edited Jul 11, 2004 5:17 PM

well.. this is just my completely uneducated guess, here
but since nobody else has responded yet, i'll throw it out there

did you pollinate those flowers by hand?
if not, then you're going to get "bee pods" (if i'm thinking correctly, here)
and the seeds (if they're fertile) will look like a mixture of whatever the bee (or other bug/bird that did the pollinating) happened to dip into before meandering over to that flower
thus, they will NOT look like the parent plant, but will be a combination of the two parent plants or whatever the parent plant reverts to when it goes to seed.. or something like that

if that makes any sense to you what so ever, i'm glad.. because now that i'm re-reading it, it doesnt make sense to me!
anyway.. it never hurts to plant the seeds and see what comes up.. it's more fun (in my opinion) to not know what they're going to look like until they bloom!
Kim

Kim, Thanks and I did get what you are saying! These were bee pollinated, so I guess I'll let the birds have the seed this fall.
I only got 3 of this type out of the whole pak and the others really weren't as neat looking. It has about 12 more flower heads forming on each stalk, going to look like one huge fuzzy flower:) Think I'll try to find out if I can buy just this type flower instead of a mix for next year.
Thanks again for your help, I really appreciate it-and the birds here do too!;)
Kathy

well you'll probably get a few volunteers that the birds miss, and they might just be something interesting :)
no problem.... i just hate to see a question like that go unanswered!
i know it's kind of annoying to ask a question and have no one reply..