Sunflower blooms form a sea of color
As the morning sun rises along the rolling hills of Baldwin in Harford and Baltimore Counties, 200 acres of golden sunflower fields come to life.
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- The sunflowers are illuminated by store lights from across Jarrettsville Pike in the early morning hours prior to sunrise. Two hundred acres of the giant flowers were planted by Clear Meadow Farm of White Hall, MD. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun)
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- Owen Dawson of Parkville takes pictures in the sunflowers in the fields located in Jarrettsville, MD. Dawson, an amateur photographer, called the sight “awesome.” (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun)
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- A Tiger Swallowtail butterfly lands on one of the sunflowers. While the domesticated hybrid sunflower such as the one picture here only has one head per plant, it’s wild cousins can have many heads. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun)
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- Dew droplets sit on the petals of a sunflower. Clear Meadow Farm planted about five million sunflower plants across the 200 acres. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun)
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- A geometric closeup of a sunflower head turns the normally beautiful flower into a more ominous looking object. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun)
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- A sunflower as it gets ready to bloom. These sunflowers are being grown on land leased to Zach Rose of Clear Meadow Farm. The 200 acres of flowers will make about 200,000 pounds of birdseed. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun)
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- Sunflowers, in their wild form, are original to North America, but according to the National Sunflower Association, the commercialization of the plant first took place in Russia before returning to America. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun)
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- A bee in search of pollen goes to work on a sunflower. There are currently many uses for sunflower crops such as sunflower oil, snack foods and bird seed, which these flowers will be harvest for. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun)
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- Some archaeologists suggest that the sunflower may have been domesticated before corn. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun)
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- A vine sprouting blue flowers wraps itself around a sunflower. The flowers generally bloom in late August and remain until mid September. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun)
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- According to the National Sunflower Association, sunflowers were a common crop among American Indian tribes throughout North America. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun)
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- The view from behind a sunflower illuminated by the morning sun. Clear Meadow farm rotates the crops between several sites from year to year. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun)
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- A Monarch butterfly flutters towards a sunflower. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun)
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- The dark green color of a sunflower leaf contrasts against the deep blue sky and bright yellows of the sunflower head. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun)
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- Julie Ruby of Abingdon,MD has her picture taken as she stands amongst the many flowers in the field located in Jarrettsville, MD. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun)
Clear Meadow Farm in White Hall, MD plants about 5,000,000 sunflower plants across the acreage. The sunflowers start blooming in late August and remain in bloom through mid September. During this time the sea of yellow and green turns into a tourist attraction as cars pull off to the side of the road so people can get a look at the spectacular sight.
Owen Dawson of Parkville, an amateur photographer said, “ It’s awesome. So many people don’t know it’s here.”
Clear Meadow rotates the planting of the sunflowers to different locations, which are harvested for birdseed. This crop will net about 200,000 pounds of birdseed from the 200 acres of plants. Next year they will plant the sunflowers in fields around Madonna and Jarrettsville.
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Sep 15, 2012 @ 14:08:00
Great photos. We are so lucky to live close to the beautiful Clear Meadow Farm and enjoying the fields of sunflowers scattered around Harford co.Thanks for posting the breathtaking pictures.