Sunflowers in London

Sunflowers: a heavy head, a thick stem and a serious thirst

A sunflower in a vase behaves less like a cut flower and more like a small plant that has been moved indoors. Thick bristled stem, heavy head, large leaves. All of it adds up to one thing: it drinks hard.

Water is where most sunflower disappointments begin. A vase that keeps roses going for a week runs dry under three sunflowers in a day, and the bouquet greets the morning with its heads down.

Setting them up

The routine differs from the usual one in several places.

• Fill the vase half full rather than a third, and check the level every day.
• Strip nearly all the foliage. The leaves transpire more water than the flower does.
• Recut on a slant with a sharp knife. Scissors crush a stem this dense.
• Use a stable vase. The head outweighs the base and tips light glass over.

A drooping head can often be recovered. Take two centimetres off the stem and stand it in fresh cold water for a few hours. If the cut end has not gone soft, the flower comes back up.

Varieties and season

Everyone pictures the field sunflower with a black centre, but the cut flower range is considerably wider.

Ornamental varieties run from green to dark chocolate centres, with petals from pale lemon through to rust. There are double forms and branching types with several small heads on a stem. Some varieties are bred pollen free, which keeps tables clean and makes them the standard choice for events.

The season is long, from midsummer well into autumn, and through it sunflowers stay among the best value flowers available for the size they deliver. Glasshouse stems appear in winter at a noticeably higher price.

Sunflowers are not about delicacy. They are about energy, and that is precisely what people send them for.

Occasions

The tone is warm with no romantic reading attached, which widens the list considerably. Sunflowers go to friends, colleagues, teachers, housewarmings, recoveries, and to anyone whose birthday would be spoiled by a formal bouquet.

They combine well with grasses, eucalyptus, hydrangea and small chrysanthemums. Those supply the mass that stops a large head from looking stranded on its own.

For delivery around London, mention the size at ordering. Three wrapped sunflowers take up far more room than nine roses, and a compact box will not close over them.

JFLOO lists sunflowers as their own category through the season. Spare a thought for the recipient's vase before ordering: a head this heavy needs a stable one, and without it the bouquet gets rehomed within the hour.