Here's a picture of the sunflowers that my mum planted ("Just scatter them on the ground, that's what God does," she said) at our allotment. They all grew up in a clump so I had to spread them out a bit. I also supplemented them with a pot that I'd grown at home but I think it's all turned out very well. The poppies she also planted never appeared.
Note: It's not that I'm very tall - the sunflowers are very short dwarf varieties - which is why we're looking down on them in the picture. The reason my wife is small in the picture is that she's far away, she's not that small in real life.