Sunny Sunflowers

I have many favorite flowers – the nature of the farmer / florist – but one I am especially fond of is the sunflower. Sunflowers are so incredibly useful! They can be grown for oil, feed or seed for humans, animals or birds. These are wonderful uses – but the reason I love them is because of their sunny faces. They just look happy to me!

Most sunflowers are annuals so they go from seed, to plant, to harvest in a single life cycle. Many people mistakenly believe sunflowers are perennial. This is because they are such prolific seeders they often reseed themselves. This reseeding is a new life cycle. There are a few varieties considered perennial but we will stick with annuals. While general appearance of sunflowers is the same, there are almost unlimited options for growing – yellow, gold, red, butter, white – and sizes ranging from petite multi-branching to the huge mammoth varieties whose heads are larger than a dinner plate.

I’m so excited to include sunflowers in our offerings at the Washington farmers market on Saturdays and among upcoming u-pick varieties for this summer.

Here we grow again!