In Praise of Sunflowers

Sunflower and Bumblebee

Sunflowers are magic. In a single season they can grow a towering 10ft tall from a seed smaller than your pinkie fingernail with flowers that bloom the size of dinner plates. Their bright yellow and rich brown faces follow the sun, which yes, many flowers do, but with sunflower blooms being so large you can almost see them move. And of course there is also their special relationship with bees. Sunflowers seem to not only lure many bees to hang out on their sunny faces but also slow them down to cozy dozing. The bees almost seem frozen in time on a sunflower and so sedated you can reach out and pet them. I have pet many bees on sunflowers on warm sunny September afternoons. As the autumn cools, the sunflower petals wither and fall, and the sunflower head changes to a glossy black, grows heavy and nods towards the ground. The bees have tucked in for the year and the birds now visit the heavy heads, both picking them clean and flinging the seeds for next years crop. I have also watched many kinds of birds visit the sunflower stalks in winter - natures' birdfeeder.

I remember the first time that I saw a sunflower farm. Growing up in the country I had probably seen them many times but in spring and early summer they look like any other crop from a distance, like corn or tobacco. But this one time as we drove by this farm the sunflowers were in full glorious bloom, thousands of sunflowers as far as the eye could see, a towering canopy of yellow and green. We pulled over and and walked along a few of the rows (back when not every field had fences around them). It was a hot afternoon and walking amongst the tall stalks was shady and cool and all you could hear was the soft hum of thousands of bees. A perfect summer memory.

It had also never occurred to me until then that such a thing as a sunflower farm existed. It makes sense of course. Where else do all the sunflower seeds, bird seed, and sunflower oil that you see in stores come from? Such a useful and beautiful plant. Fast forward a few years and every garden I have ever tended has had sunflowers. The crazy thing is, I only planted the first few seeds. Nature and the birds did the rest. The next batch of flowers is always in a bit different place and sometimes there is even a different kind of sunflower, like small ones, or red ones. I have no idea how they get there, but of course they are always welcome.

My sunflower mitten design is in praise of sunflowers, and bees of course. They are such a striking flower, in life, in paintings, on tablecloths, and even on mittens. Sunflowers make me happy every time I see them, so knit into mittens not only keeps my hands warm in winter but also reminds me that summer is not all that far away.

Happy Sunflower Mittens