July 8, 2025 – Is there any plant better suited to represent summer than the sunflower? These magnificent giants with their large, colorful flowers defy the heat and bring smiles to everyone who sees them.
An extremely hardy plant, sunflowers have been around in the USA for over a thousand years, back to the time of the Cahokia mound builders in the St.Louis area. Sunflowers are the only native major field crop grown today, and commercial crop acreage averages 2 million acres a year.
As a food crop, sunflower demand exploded in the 1970s, due to European demand for sunflower oil. Sunflower seeds contain 40-45% of their weight in oil. This oil is the largest market for sunflowers in the world.
In addition to being a human food source (sunflower seeds, sunflower oil), sunflowers have many other uses. Their flowers feed pollinators, the seeds feed song birds, the seed hulls are used as silage, and the plant’s deep taproot can help improve tight soils.
Sunflowers grow in many types of soils, but they do best in coarse, moisture-limited soil, and are fairly easy to grow in Hopkins County. In the spring, plant the seeds 1 inch deep in lightly tilled soil, and enjoy a gorgeous, majestic display of color all summer long!
