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Nothing says summer like sunflowers. These sun worshipers’ cheerful, round, daisy-like faces rotate to follow the sun all day. When darkness falls, they turn again to face east, awaiting the morning sun. This movement is called heliotropism. As the heads become top-heavy with seeds, the heads bow, and this daily movement ceases.
Interestingly, a sunflower is not really “a” flower; instead, it is the pseudanthium (flowerhead), created from many tiny flowers destined to become a seed. Outer petals are ray flowers, multiple petals fused together. Ray petals are usually yellow, but sunflowers can be red, orange, maroon or brown.
Fun Flower Facts
Sun-loving and heat-tolerant sunflowers are also resistant to pests. They attract pollinators like birds, bees and butterflies and make long-lasting cut flowers.
There are numerous varieties of sunflowers, so you can pick the size and color that suits your garden. The most recognizable are the mammoths, growing straight and tall, reaching over 16 feet, with a flower head the size of a dinner plate (or larger). Mammoth is best for producing seeds, maturing in about 90 days. A shorter variety is Teddy Bear, growing only 2 – 3 feet tall, covered in fluffy, dark golden blooms. This variety is perfect for container growing.
The big guys need lots of room, 6 to 8 hours of sunlight daily, and support to prevent breaking in high wind or from their own weight. Planting along a fence or building is recommended. Also, choose a well-drained area; sunflowers don’t like wet feet. However, they do like to wiggle their toes in the soil, so loosen up that Virginia clay with compost and organic materials. And add in some time-release fertilizer—sunflowers are big eaters.
As seeds fill the mature flower head, they attract hungry birds and humans looking for a healthy treat. Recipes and directions for roasting the seeds can be found online.
Growing Tips
• Sow seeds into soil after frost date (May 15 is usually safe in the New River Valley)
• Plant 1 ½ inches deep, 6 inches apart
• Stagger planting dates so you have blooms all summer
• If birds scratch up seeds, cover with netting until germination
• Water 3-4 inches from plant
• As plants grow, water weekly with several gallons
• Don’t overfeed, or you get spindly plants that break easily
• Loosely tie plants to fence or bamboo stakes
• Cut flower stems at 45° angle, and change water daily
• Harvest seeds, roast and eat
• Leave some flowers to dry and watch birds feed
• Save seeds to plant next year
Sinkland Farms
Sunflower Festival
Sinkland Farms, Susan Sink’s Christiansburg home for 40-something years, is famous for its autumn Pumpkin Festival. And for four years, they’ve hosted a summer Sunflower Festival.
Sinkland started life in 1980 as a dairy farm. Susan and her late husband bought 125 acres and plunged into the dairy business. After losing her husband, she sold the cows and shifted her focus. “I didn’t know anything about dairy farming or milking cows, but I sure know how to throw a party!”
Everybody Loves a Party
Sunflower festivals became popular nationwide, but only a couple were held in Virginia. Sink and her adult children decided this was another need they could fill, and they were off and running — with the tractor and planting seeds.
Sink ascribes to the movie line, “If you build it, they will come.” Now, on three weekends in August, nearly 12,000 sunflower lovers come to wander through sunflower fields —think corn maze — but green topped with flowers! They come to see 200,000 sunflowers waving as summer breezes ripple through. They come to take annual summer family portraits and enjoy time in the country.
The $10 entrance fee during festival weekends allows you to park, walk the trails, peruse booths of handcrafted items by local arts and crafts vendors, and take home a fresh sunflower. A playground entertains toddlers to ‘tweens, with slides, ropes course and a zipline. You can pet baby animals, take photos and ride ponies. Visitors enjoy live music daily in the taproom, along with wine slushies.
The farm has an ice cream shop and store and a variety of food trucks on site. Sink your teeth into everything from pizza and BBQ to tacos and empanadas.
Growing Picture-Perfect Blooms
Sunflower varieties need between 60 and 75 days from germination to bloom. Ten acres are planted to ensure peak blooms for festival weekends, staggering three plantings one week apart. Fields are irrigated, and the ground is prepped with fertilizer before planting. When plants are six inches tall, they are fertilized again so plants produce massive blooms. The planting process is repeated in late summer in preparation for the Pumpkin Festival.
Susan Sink puts her heart and soul into everything. She learned the lesson of her parents and grandparents in Franklin County: Do it right or don’t do it at all. More than 60,000 visit Sinkland Farms for festivals. She seems to be doing everything right. As she says: “Let us be YOUR family tradition.”
Text by Jo Clark
Jo Clark is a photographer at heart. You can probably find her outdoors, snapping her camera to capture anything that catches her eye–especially pretty flowers. Check out her photos on Instagram @JoGoesEverywhere.
