Sunflowers

Q: Ken, wonder if you could help me with a couple of my garden problems.  I have some lovely sun flowers but the leaves are going yellow and dying where am I going wrong?  Also have for the first time this year grown sweet peas they have been lovely but wonder what to do with them now as they are almost at the end of their flowering and they look shabby have plenty of seeds on them and wonder when I should take these off.  Many thanks.  Barbara (Gidea Park)

A: The sunflowers sound as if they have had too much water , could this be the case? This year is one of the worst and the latter few weeks temperatures have fluctuated so much this could also be affecting them. The bottom leaves are generally inclined to yellow and drop but not all the way up. Best of luck.

As for sweet peas , they do end their life about now and if the flowers are picked regularly and the plant not allowed to go to seed they always flower for a little longer,a tip for next year perhaps . If you have seed allow it to dry on the plant and save for next year , depending on which sweet pea they may not come true to type and or may not produce seed , so let us know.