In the ever-so infamous words of the great poet Mr. Andrew Clemingstonan: "The sunflower, by its nature, is a musical plant. By which I mean, it simply exhibits traits one could consider musical." Of course, anyone who's heard that quote before probably dismissed it due to the self referential nature of its logic, but if I'm going to be honest here, I think Mr. Clemingstonan might be onto something. Maybe it's the alignment of their petals or the distribution of their seeds, but there's something about sunflowers that makes a melody appear in my head whenever I look at one. But I digress... this page is supposed to be about how I got into sunflower farming, after all.

I guess it all started when I read a book by our dear Mr. Clemingstonan. And, sorry if I go on a little bit of a tangent here, I always considered it a very strange book. There was something about it, as though some of its pages had been taken from another, larger book. And those pages... they were strange in their own right... I swear I used to see them shifting form out of the corner of my eye... the contents of their pages changing. Regardless, the book covered a great deal of things, and one of them was a method of farming sunflowers effectively. Seeing as I was already an avid gardner, I decided to try my hand and grow a few using it (despite the Sun usually meaning bad business for us Weathermen). And when I say it worked well... I mean it.

As for what I do with the sunflowers... I sell them! The amount of people interested in buying sunflowers is actually kind of surprising to be honest. It turns out that some special variants are particularly sought after by members of the upper class. (Don't worry. I'm not afraid of charging them a little extra! :^) )

My first harvest- Woah!

The process I use to grow sunflowers is one that, as I mentioned in the "My Story" tab, comes from the late poet Mr. Andrew Clemingstonan. That said, due to the method's surprising productivity I have made some major modifications in order to prevent myself from having to harvest acres upon acres of sunflowers annually. (I mean, this is just a hobby, after all :^) ). Anyways, the process procedes as follows:

1. Buy the right seeds: I often buy seeds from the little known "Apotheosis Strain"
2. Plant the seeds in the right place at the right time: Typically it'd be wise to plant sunflowers in late Spring, but as per "the method" I plant them mid-Fall. Ensure that you plant them in loamy soil, too much clay might cause complications. Make sure each seed is placed between 3-4 ft into the Earth, any less and you might fail to start the process
3. Make sure to water them regularly: Sunflowers need a lot of water, and this is only exacerbated when following "the method". Make sure to water them multiple time daily
4. Avoid being too loud: Causing a ruckus near your seedlings might cause them to stop growing. This isn't typical of sunflowers and to be honest I think "the method" exchanges their resiliance for better results
5. Be patient: You might notice that the flowers don't start growing until a few months have passed. This is normal. They typically will grow from seedling to harvest-ready within a few hours, you just have to make sure they stay healthy until they reach that stage
6. Harvest with reverence: It's good to respect nature

Handy image I scanned from the book!

For those that aren't into farming sunflowers as much as I am, the concept of "famous sunflowers" might be a little strange. But I assure you, these sunflowers are famous for a reason!

• The Bosnian Catastrophe: This particular sunflower is famous for warding off its opponents in battle. How exactly this was done remains unknown.
• Castle-Leaf: Grown by a master gardner far out of his prime, the Castle-Leaf was said to be able to do strange things. Whatever exactly that means.
• The Omen Flower: I've only learned of this one quite recently, actually. It seems to appear when something has gone horribly wrong with its "host". According to my sources, its rumored that any semantic concept has a corresponding Omen Flower, and thus acts as a host. For example, say you have a base of your dearly departed grandmother's ashes. If that vase was to be knocked over in a week, its Omen Flower would grow nearby. This isn't a perfect example though, because typically the Omen Flower appears when something is wrong with the host in the present, and serves to warn that things are only going to get worse. Well, I'm not a metaphysicist... I'm sure there are better places to go if you want to learn the exact behavior of an important sunflower. It seems like "the method" I'm using to grow sunflowers seems to yield an unusual amount of Omen Flowers...

An Omen Flower