Sunflowers are a unique and wonderful plant. With the genus name of Helianthus annuus, a member of the Asteraceae family, they were cultivated by native Americans over 3000 years ago as a food source, which has been verified by carbon dating of seeds found in ancient dwellings. Little known fact is that the sunflower gets its name from the way that the head can usually follow the track of the sun itself, with the name helianthus coming from Helios (sun) and anthos (flower), hence sunflower.

The journals, chronicling the travels of Lewis and Clark through the strange country that is now the US, mentioned the existence of sunflowers, their versatility and importance in early agriculture. According to the journal, the plant had several and amazing uses. It was used for decoration, snacks, and was processed to make cooking oil.

Currently, Argentina has the largest number of acres under sunflower production, with Russia second then the United States which has over three million acres under seed production. Any trip through the central plains of the Dakotas, Kansas or Texas will let you see them for miles, as sunflowers are second only to soy beans as an oil producing plant.

Currently, sunflower production is threatened by the diminishing bee population. Because sunflowers are reproduced by bee pollination, sunflower production is endangered. This worries farmers and flower gardening enthusiasts.

As a healthy food source it’s hard to beat their seeds. From the content of phytochemicals to an abundance of vitamins and minerals, it’s proven cardiovascular worth and its cholesterol lowering properties, it’s hard to beat them as a great source of all the body needs.

Sunflowers have sturdy stems and grow up to fifteen feet. It does not take much trouble to tend to the plants what with modern farming methods available. Farmers can harvest a thousand pounds of sunflower seeds from an acre per single crop. Van Goghs painting of sunflowers gives another reason for loving the flowers; they are a sight to behold.

As many of us who are no longer engaged in a farming community, or live in areas that allow for growing flowers such as the sunflower, it’s just impractical to even consider having the ‘real thing’ all the time.

The rising cost of transport cost and harvesting of sunflowers makes it impractical to have sunflowers at any time of the year. To be practical, one can only delight in an occasional gift of sunflowers. But this is not what happens.

Today, with modern manufacturing processes and high tech design, your very best way to have the benefit of one of mother nature’s finest and oldest creations is to go the artificial flower route. What this allows you to do is to have that glorious bloom near you all year round, and coupled with the robust materials available for these items, it’s hard to see how you could go wrong with a simple bloom or two. Also, it can be very hard for one to distinguish between a ‘real’ sunflower and an artificial one.