Sunflower Season

July 18th, 2021

We picked up our first bunch of farm flowers this week after joining a 10 week CSA. To my delight it contained one huge sunflower, a longtime favorite in our house. How can you not love a heliotropic flower. I have grown them with mixed success over the years.

As their name implies, they love sun. They face East to west during the day and return to east at the end of the day in anticipation of the next morning sunrise. Keep them protected from the wind. Everything you need to know about Sunflowers can be found at The Farmer’s Almanac site. I have included links on How to Grow and How to plant a Sunflower House below

Sunny the singing sunflower

One year, we acquired Sunny the singing sunflower from our daughter’s pre-school. I don’t remember but I think she won it as a prize. It was motion activated and when you walked by it, the leaves started flapping and it sang “You are my sunshine”. moving its eyes and mouth. It was made by Gemmy, a company based in suburban Dallas, that later would produce Big Mouth Singing Bass.

Anyway, our daughter loved it. She would giggle and clap and do a little dance in front of it. It was adorable. I kept it until she went off to school. Of course now they sell for three hundred dollars on ebay. Still – ever time I see a sunflower, “you are my sunshine” still sings in my head.

It’s no surprise that Sunflower House was a favorite picture book too.

If you live in New England, here are links to Sunflowers you can visit

The best success I ever had planting sunflowers was in a raised bed in our back yard one summer. It had been a vegetable garden, but mostly a deer/rabbit all you can eat buffet previously. The hardest part, for me, is remembering to soak the seeds for 24 hours before planting. The best thing about sunflowers is that they grow so fast in the right conditions.

There are also native perennial sunflowers that have more smaller blooms per stalk, but also grow to 7 feet and butterflies love them.

Maximilian sunflower

These pop up along the roadside, but people plant them at the back of borders too.

The post Sunflower Season appeared first on Notablerose.

Reply

or to participate.