Sunflowers are a wonderful, wonderful flower to use in summer and fall flowers bouquets. They are available in this time of year and are inexpensive. As a florist, and perhaps a home gardener, they can flower to grow for their store as long as the flowers are processed and cured properly. There is a very strong trend toward "garden flower designs," a kind of natural wild flowers and flower patch look.
Sunflowers come in a variety of dramatic late summer and autumn colors. The annual sunflower (Helianthus annuus) is the flower most people imagine when they think of a sunflower. They range from bright, sunny yellow to dark red, chocolate brown and all shades in between, including variegated varieties. Sunflowers have long, sturdy and durable steal. In fact, if you do not you use sunflowers as fresh flowers, hang them upside down and dry them and use them in your autumn dried flower arrangements. In your garden, they can be cut just before the flowers die off and dried in a few weeks. For design projects, it is important to leave a sufficient quantity of the stem.
