My late mother loved flowers and plants and I hope that this beautiful and lively sunflower will bring hope and the drive to celebrate life to people living with cancer and their families!

I feel that the radiant yellow colour of the sunflower is beautiful and signifies hope and joy. It is also a remarkable flower that offers potential health benefits.

In the following paragraphs I will share my knowledge on the symbolic sunflower.

Sunflowers are daisies which are members of the Aster family. Together with the orchids, they belong to the two largest families of plants on earth. The sunflower is 3,000 years old and is so named because of its golden-rayed flowers which faces the sun from morning to night.

Although it is easy to think of the sunflower as a single flower, it is actually a composite of small florets which make up the face of the sunflower head and are arranged in circles. Each floret has its own ovary, stigma, style, and anthers and produces a single seed. A large sunflower head, perhaps a foot across, can have as many as eight thousand florets. The outer ring of florets has large ray petals, which can be a greenish yellow when young, turning a darker yellow orange on maturity. The green outer leaves are called bracts.

There are many species and varieties of sunflowers having various hues including yellow, red, amber, bronze, purple and orange.

The largest sunflower head ever measured was thirty-two and a half inches in diameter. It was grown in Canada. The shortest sunflower was just over two inches. It was grown in Oregon using a bonsai technique. At the other end of the measuring stick, the tallest sunflower plant on record stretched twenty-five feet, five inches. It was grown in the Netherlands.

It was said that when the Mormons left Missouri in the 1830s in search of a place where they could worship freely, the first wagon train scattered a trail of sunflower seeds to mark their trail. When the next wagon train set out the following summer, the people were easily guided to their new home in Utah by the path of sunflowers that stretched out before them.

Important note :

In the entire sprouting process listed above, you may encounter problems such as seeds not sprouting or not growing well when sprouted. Sometimes they may also turn mouldy. Such problems are usually due to humidity, temperature and also the poor quality of seeds and soils.

Sunflower kernels, commonly known as sunflower seeds are a wonderful source of many vitamins, minerals, good fats, and antioxidants that are needed to keep our bodies healthy. Research studies have shown that the sunflower kernel offers a variety of potential health benefits, because they contain high levels of the following phytochemicals that may protect against various diseases.

What better way is there to teach a child about nature than by planting sunflowers together? Little fingers can poke a hole in the earth, place a seed, and cover it up again. In just ten days little sprouts will be popping up, some wearing their striped or black seed shell for a hat. Growing high and fast, their Jack-and-the-Beanstalk growth is a feast of fantasy. Children will watch for the first appearance of harvestable seeds, will have great fun removing the seeds from the head, and will delight in bringing to the kitchen table something they had a hand in cultivating.