Is it Really Summer without Sunflowers?? Whether in the garden or on your dining room table, sunflowers just scream summer time. If there’s an emblem for summer, you can bet a top contender is the sunflower. So, let’s talk a little about sunflowers. Sunflowers benefit from all the usual care tips of but let’s just go over best practices. Choose firm blooms with nice foliage and try to find ones that aren’t too bent at the neck. Sunflowers are geotropic, meaning they grow away from gravity, so bent necks mean they have been stored in a horizontal position for some amount of time. I’ve had ones with bent necks last a couple of weeks, but if you have a choice, opt for the ones not bending. Sunflowers are also phototropic, meaning they will follow the light. While still in soil, they will follow the sun throughout the day. I really haven’t found that to be so pronounced in cut sunflowers (not like say, tulips), but if you have a vase near a bright window you may need to rotate it to keep for design integrity. I also like to purchase ones that aren’t completely open. Getting really tight buds is iffy, you never can be really sure they’ll open, but ones where you can see most of the center but the petals are still angled forward is what I like. In a bright room, they’ll be fully open in a day or two. As with all flowers, remove foliage below the water line and with sunflowers, if the leaves at the top are large, I take them off too. Besides messing with my design, they can take water from the bloom. Make sure there is plenty of water in the vase and use commercial preservative. You can get it at most florist and is usually included with cut bouquets, no matter where you buy them. If you don’t have preservative, I prefer just plain water over trying to make some home brew preservative – you’ll never get the proportions right and will probably do more harm than good. Ok, lots of people swear by 7UP, aspirin, sugar water – if you’re of that camp do your thing. Add water daily and change out every couple of days, a fresh cut never hurts anyone but us. Keep away from A/C vents and hot windows and you’ll be fine. Now, what to do with those sunflowers besides just a vase on the table? Not much new here, more of a reminder of some nice ideas. A simple vase of sunflowers goes a long way but, If you’re having a party, sunflower heads at each setting is really cute. It’s also cute to use drink bottles (ones with fat mouths) and put one bloom in each and line them up in the center of the table. Or, if you have a large shallow pasta bowl, fill it up with whole lemons, add a little water and stick some short sunflowers ( really short, about 2-3 inches so the heads are nestled next to the lemons) in for a really summery centerpiece. Beyond that, use your imagination and summon your inner creativity and have some fun. Happy Summer!
