Ariticles About Sunflower Farm Festival
We had some really great media coverage in 2006! Here is a list of the
publications which featured the festival.
Southern Living Magazine, June 2006, Vol.41#6.
www.southernliving.com
Athens Magazines Events Guide, Summer 2006, Vol. 15 #2. They rated us a
"Best Bet"
www.athensevents.com
Southern Distinction Magazine, September 2006,Vol. III #9.
www.southerndistinction.com
Lake Oconee Living Magazine, Summer 2006,Vol. IX #3,
www.lakeoconeelivingmag.com
Lake Life Magazine, Premier issue, Summer 2006
Georgia Neighbors, Spring/Summer2006, Vol. 11 #2, Published by Georgia Farm
Bureau
www.gfb.org
Atlanta Journal, Monday July 3, 2006 , B5
www.ajc.com
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The (GA)
August 14, 2003
Section: Buyer's Edge
Edition: Home; The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Page: NW14
Head turners
Three generations of an east Georgia family give sunflowers a closer look
DANNY C. FLANDERS
Few plants can turn heads like sunflowers.
Maybe it's because, at first glance, they're so down-home yet stunningly cheerful -- fat, brown-seeded heads ringed by bright yellow petals that bob atop towering slender stalks. But a closer look shows a sophisticated, complex bloom, once dismissed like a bawdy barmaid, that's become a staple in the cut-flower industry, from grocery store coolers to the most upscale florists.
One reason is that sunflowers take us down nostalgic dirt roads from childhood, ones where the plants once dropped their heavy heads over chicken pens, sprinkling many a yard bird with plenty of food.
The flower's meant all those things -- and more -- for three generations of a Morgan County farm family. And, despite the beauty in their 8-acre meadow of yellow, a single plant still holds the power to stop members in their tracks.
"Some will stick up a foot above the others like they're saying, 'Look at me, I'm out here, too, you know,' " says Bobby West, who plants and harvests the sunflower crop every year on the Rutledge farm, about 50 miles east of Atlanta.
Two years ago, he realized just how appealing the flowers can be when he and his sister, Rena Holt, organized a July Fourth Sunflower Festival that drew 1,000 visitors. Last month, they offered an encore, and more than 4,000 turned out to pay homage to the Helianthus, buy sunflower-themed arts and crafts, listen to music and eat country cooking.
"So many would tell me that sunflowers remind them of their travels to France," Holt says, "or that they grew up on farms that had a few sunflowers in the vegetable garden, and they just enjoy knowing that they're still around."
She can identify.
Her father once grew cotton on their farm's more than 650 acres. In the late '70s and early '80s, he added sunflowers, mainly for selling to Pennington Seed, which was getting into the birdseed business about that time. After she retired from teaching school in Brunswick, Holt and her husband returned to live on the farm. Then, three years ago, her brother Bobby, who's farmed there all his life, decided to grow sunflowers, mainly for hunting dove.
Suddenly, folks traveling along Durden Road were stopping to take in the sight. Because so many wanted to pick the sunflowers, the family posted a mailbox holding instructions and a request for a donation in exchange for a pick-your-own bouquet: Please place money in slot. Thank You!"
Then last summer, West, who each year leads the July Fourth tractor parade, had an idea: Why not give the participants a good look, routing the stream of John Deeres by his sunflower fields?
At the time, Holt's son, Wes, who had recently purchased about a dozen acres from his parents, had begun restoring the farm's old sharecropper house. The Decatur resident, who manages the Atlanta History Center's gardens, teamed up with his mom to make the old cottage an added attraction. He enclosed its dirt yard with a rustic stick fence and planted a heritage garden that emphasizes heirloom flowers and vegetables, from red trumpet honeysuckle vine to tomatoes and gourds. The setting would become the perfect backdrop for a festival.
Yet, this year the sunflowers -- mainly the common Russian variety, 'Peredovik' -- continued to steal the show. West plants the rapid growers around April 28 so they will flower by the Fourth. Typically, they bloom for about a month, but this summer's cloudy days and rain curtailed the performance to only two weeks.
"The biggest question we get is whether they can plant the seed from the cuttings," says Rena Holt, who takes bouquets to restaurants in nearby Madison and Social Circle. "The answer is no, because the seeds aren't fully developed."
Once the blossoms fade, her brother leaves them in the fields to dry until mid-August when he conducts moisture tests before harvesting the plants with a combine. He keeps and cleans some seed for planting and sells others for birdseed.
And Wes Holt, who sells cut sunflowers to several Atlanta florists, is experimenting with about a dozen varieties in a small trial garden behind the cottage. There, plants with blooms like burgundy 'Chianti', creamy 'Italian White' and light yellow 'Evening Sun' pop against the field of all-yellow standards.
Yet, it's those common sunflowers, he says, that keep folks coming back to experience one of the simple glories of summer.
The Holt farm, which sells heirloom plants as well as sunflowers, is off Exit 105 of I-20 east near Rutledge. Call ahead (706-557-2870) for availability and directions.
4 STEPS TO PROLONGING CUT FLOWERS
Sunflowers that are properly selected, cut and cared for will last 10 days to two weeks indoors, Rena Holt says.
The key can be found in the center of their heads. "You want the face to be very firm, still kind of green in the middle, with very little pollen buildup, when you pick it," she says.
That's because the more the flower matures, the more pollen it produces, leaving a dusty mess on tabletops. At the same time, as the heads dry, they become heavy with seed and droop.
That's because the more the flower matures, the more pollen it produces, leaving a dusty mess on tabletops. At the same time, as the heads dry, they become heavy with seed and droop.
Here's what Holt recommends:
STEP 1: Cut flowers in early morning, when they are freshest. Choose a sunflower with a firm green center, which holds the least amount of pollen. Using snippers, cut the stem at a slant (a 45-degree or greater angle).
STEP 2: Strip leaves from the stem so they won't compete with the bloom for water. Immediately place the stem in water before heading indoors.
STEP 3: Open the tips of stems so that they will more easily absorb water. This can be done either by slicing the end several times or by smashing it with a mallet.
STEP 4: Before arranging flowers, fill the container with warm water and add 1/2 teaspoon of Clorox and 1 teaspoon of sugar. Re-cut the stems daily, rinse their ends to kill bacteria and change the water every couple of days.
HOW TO GROW
Sunflowers thrive in average, even poor, soil and full sun with daytime temperatures in the mid-80s.
Most tolerate dry conditions, though large varieties lose moisture through their numerous leaves.
Annual types can be planted by seed in spring according to the seed packet, while perennials are best added to the garden in either spring or fall. Multi-branched varieties, which can grow up to 7 feet tall, should be planted two to four feet apart. Single-stem ones can be sown closer together.
Copyright 2003 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution