Big, bright, tall sunflowers are coming into bloom all around the County, to the delight of bees, butterflies and people. These days, the classic golden flowers – the ones that get the tallest – are joined by orange, red, and fabulous concentric combinations of colors. Hybridizers have been hard at work, and online you can even find a startling blue variety. To borrow a word used a lot lately in our nation’s presidential campaign, blue sunflowers are just weird.
Sunflowers are native to North America, where they were domesticated 3,000 years ago – possibly much earlier – by people who used their seeds in all the ways we do now: as snacks, ground into meal or flour, and pressed for oil for cooking and cosmetic use. The stalks were used as building material in dry climates, and other parts of the plant were used to make dyes.
In the 16th century, Spaniards saw those golden flowers, and, having gold on their minds, decided to take sunflower seeds home with them.
The flowers spread through Europe, where they were mostly grown mostly as ornamentals for a couple of centuries. Then Russians and Ukrainians created the first large scale, commercial sunflower oil industries.
Many Orthodox Christians were happy about that, because they were forbidden by the church from using lard or butter during Lent. But the church rules, which were written before the advent of sunflower oil, meant it was permitted. That improved a lot of Lenten meals.
Today, the sunflower is both a symbol of peace, and, ironically, the national flower of Ukraine, a nation at war to defend its sovereignty from invading Russians.
The bright symbol of peace had a moment of darkness on the day Russia invaded Ukraine. Time reported that “. . . the news outlet Ukraine World shared a video on Twitter showing a Ukrainian woman in Henychesk giving sunflower seeds to Russian soldiers, with the striking instruction to put the seeds in their pockets so the flowers will grow where they die.”
That feisty, patriotic woman’s dark vision didn’t deter sunflowers from becoming a worldwide symbol of hope and support for Ukraine. On the contrary, people in countries around the world grow them to telegraph their solidarity with the Ukrainian struggle.
But every patch of sunflowers isn’t a statement, and the sunflowers themselves are plants, not protesters.
They’re easy and fun to grow. Seeds planted in late May or early June, when the soil has warmed up, will rise out of the soil and grow amazingly fast, often going from sprout to flower in two months.
They’re not fussy about soil, though more fertile soil will produce bigger flowers on taller plants. The only thing they can’t do without is – you surely already know this – sun.
In the spring, you can spend quite a lot of time standing in front of a seed rack reading the descriptions of sunflower varieties to make sure you know how tall they will get, and what colors they will be. Some have been bred to be short enough to be suitable for bouquets; others will top out at 12 feet or more.
One of the current garden conversations in my neighborhood is sidewalk speculation about whether the tall ones are ten, twelve, or even thirteen feet tall. No one bothers to measure them; it’s more fun to stand around and speculate. Knowing for sure how tall they are would end the conversation, and the excuse for lingering there, gawking in amazement and watching the bees.
This week one conversation turned to wondering how and when to harvest the spent flowers and make the seeds available to people and to birds. My favorite suggestion for bird feeding is to lay the cut flower heads on the flat roof of the neighbor’s carport, where birds would be safe from the local horde of marauding cats.
Clearly, our street’s sunflower patch is the work of uninformed amateurs who are having a very good time. Even an uninvolved pedestrian said, “They just make me smile every time I walk past.”
Jill Severn writes from her home in Olympia, where she grows vegetables, flowers, and a small flock of chickens. She loves conversation among gardeners. Start one by emailing her at jill@theJOLTnews.com
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