In the cut flower world, 2024 has turned out to be the year of the breeder with the introduction of Floret Originals, Sunflower Steve’s Van Gogh mix, and more new Kristine Albrecht dahlia varieties. And let’s not forget the whole Coseytown drama!
It’s been a big year for cut flower breeding.
I had been following Sunflower Steve Seed Co. for a while and was first introduced to him through Flower Hill Farm’s YouTube channel. I was very excited that he would be shipping his seeds to Canada, even though the price per packet was the same as the shipping, making for a $60 plus purchase in CAD funds. I felt I had to try them.
Sunflower Steve was super kind and gave an extra packet of seeds to all Canadians who purchased from him because he felt bad. He acknowledged that it was kind of ridiculous that shipping and the packet price were the same. At about $14 a packet, you go into this knowing that you’re not just purchasing seeds but supporting the breeding program so it can go on.
I have never babied sunflowers so much in my life.
I was very anxious to see these sunflowers bloom, and when they finally did, they did not disappoint! This was a really terrible growing year for any heat-loving crops, so I feel like they would have performed a bit better in a different year, but the few that did bloom were very exciting.
The first to bloom from the Van Gogh series was a light yellow with maroon, which I was personally not as much of a fan of, but it was still really cool. The second to bloom was more of an orangey rust colour (pictured below), which I really loved.
And the third to bloom was the sunflower below. It was equally beautiful and exciting!
A few of the sunflowers that bloomed did not have the classic Sunflower Steve look and were instead some very lovely double-petalled flowers, which is to be expected in a mix that is still in development. I only got to use one sunflower in a floral arrangement this year because I wanted to save the rest for seed saving. I’m curious how the genetics will play out next year and excited to actually use more of these flowers in bouquets!
I’ll update this post again once I have more flowers to discuss.
I was really happy with what I got this year, and it was a really fun investment in a breeding program! In the future, when I have more of these sunflowers to offer my subscribers, I know they will be really excited about it because it will be something they haven’t seen before!
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