Do sunflowers express more meaning as a Valentine’s Day love gift than a bouquet of red roses?
According to the big book of romantic beliefs, sunflowers symbolise what some most desire — “unwavering adoration, loyalty and longevity”.
The habit of the sunflower is to follow the sun’s light.
When the weather is cloudy and rainy the flowers turn towards each other to share their energy and support.
Does that mean, “I only have eyes for you; You are my sunshine; I will always turn towards you …?”
This characteristic represents a promise to stay by someone’s side and remain faithful.
Expressed poetically to convey devotedness, “No matter how beautiful the moon is, the sunflower will always lean towards the sun”.
Mythology tells how the sunflower is a symbol of adoration and unrequited love that “persists forever”.
Then there are the Valentine’s cards. They may or may not accompany the flowers you gift to someone.
Some of us remember schooldays when Valentine’s Day cards were sent anonymously, causing all kinds of fluttery heart imaginings.
Then I am reminded of a heartening story told by the secretary of a top East London girls’ school to my mom (her friend) that the spinster principal of that time and our ferocious hockey coach (who once hit me on the head with a hockey stick) exchanged Valentine’s Day cards one February 14 day.
One never got the impression that either of them could be soft or sentimental.
But this story confirms that everyone enjoys being acknowledged on Valentine’s Day.
Be it with sunflowers, roses or a card.
For post-impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh, sunflowers were significant and the subject of seven paintings.
Known for his vibrant, emotional works, the biggest flower of the daisy family was to him a symbol of gratitude, joy, faithfulness and friendship.
Sunflowers in the garden
Sunflowers behaviour is interesting to observe.
Fascinating is heliotropism — the idea that sunflowers have an internal clock.
Young sunflower blooms face the sun and track it through the day as it moves across the sky from East to West.
In sunflowers, this is known as solar tracking to maximise light absorption for photosynthesis, aiding in temperature regulation and boosting growth by attracting pollinators.
It is thought that the flower is more attractive to pollinators when it is warm.
At night, they reorient to face east again, in anticipation of the sunrise.
When sunflower blooms mature, they keep facing east.
The sunflowers blooming in my garden right now are simply gorgeous. Passersby have commented on them too.
The conditions in the soil and site of the bed I have grown them are not ideal for usual planting.
This says a lot about their needs. They are the most undemanding plants.
Sunflowers love the heat. Mine are as tall as a person and have endured the extreme summer temperatures, bravely presenting huge happy-faced flowers for all.
I now see they are being deseeded by birds.
They have tilted their heads which is a sign that they are preparing for the seeds to fall onto the ground.
How it started
If you visited Lone Oak seedling “farm” on the edge of Gonubie lately, you would have been impressed by rows of sunflowers on either side of the entry road leading you to the entrance.
Last year, after admiring the huge-faced blooms on a visit, co-owner Wayne Jefferies gifted me with some seeds which I planted.
The “fruits” of these are what we are enjoying right now in my garden.
Planting
Annual sunflowers (Helianthus annus) seeds should be sown from early spring to mid-summer.
Successive plantings after this will ensure that you will have a long display of flowers until the end of summer.
Single stem varieties produce only one flower per stem and the flower ends its life cycle after that bloom.
Wild sunflowers, the branching and dwarf varieties, produce more than one flower on each plant.
The flowers attract pollinators to the garden such as bees and butterflies.
Choose a site that enjoys six to eight hours of sun a day.
They could be planted at the back of the bed or against a wall.
They are not fussy about the soil they are planted in.
Prepare the soil by digging down to about half a metre and add compost to the soil.
I make zig-zag furrows in the soil rather than a straight row.
Water the area, then press the seeds into the ground to be at a depth of 2cm.
Allow adequate spacing between the seeds, about 30cm apart.
Keep the soil moist until they have germinated.
Sunflowers are excellent cut flowers. For their symbolic connection to lasting love they are often used in bridal bouquets and wedding flower arrangements.
Each sunflower stays in bloom for up to three weeks.
For the vase, choose flowers that are pollenless and have sturdy stems.
When cutting them for the vase remove all the leaves that will be under water in the arrangement.
Hold the stems under water, then cut them to the desired length.
An angled cut will expose the maximum amount of stem to the water, allowing it to absorb more water than if the stem is cut straight across.
As a companion plant
In the vegetable garden, they provide natural trellises for climbing plants such as beans and cucumbers and shade for lettuce and spinach.
Sunflowers should not be grown near potatoes, broccoli, brussel sprouts and cabbage.
Their aesthetic appeal is that they give height to a garden bed.
They detoxify the soil
Sunflowers also play a role in detoxifying the soil, and with their long tap root help to break up the soil.
Their roots also sequester nitrogen from deep in the soil up closer to the surface for other plants’ use.
In detoxifying the soil, sunflowers are known to absorb harmful heavy metals from contaminated soil through their roots and store them in their tissues.
Following the Chernobyl disaster, roots of sunflowers were used as a biological filter to clean up a nuclear disaster.
Daily Dispatch
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