It’s SUNflower picking Season!
It’s that time of year when the sun is well and truly out and so are the sunflowers, and the good people at Atkins Farm have opened their gates to all you sunflower lovers for a limited sunflower picking season. They’ve planted literally tens of thousands of sunflower seeds and OK, yeah, there’s no denying it, their sunflower paddocks are looking pretty darn awesome right about now.
The deal is simple, you get on their website, book a 50 minute sunflower picking session, and off you go! For most people that translates to about two minutes of actual picking, and 48 minutes of taking photos for socials. And go your hardest! They even have a few strategically placed props out in the field to help you get ‘the shot’. (The fancy vintage chair is our personal fave.)
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Your ticket price gets you six stems per adult, two per child, and if you forget to take your own snips, you can either use your teeth to bite the stems, (not recommended), or borrow a pair from them which is a much better idea. You should also take a bucket to put your sunflowers in. Once you’ve picked them, they’ll give you some water so by the time you get home your sunflowers are still fresh as a daisy. Ah, sunflower.
A pro tip from our visit is most of the sunflowers seem to be facing East… so the obvious thing is to go in the morning to catch the light. BUT… if you go later in the day you’ll get the light shining through the flowers from behind which also looks pretty speccy. So if you’re handing with your smartphone/camera, this could look real nice and get ready to rack up those likes on Insta!
WANNA START YOUR OWN MINI SUNFLOWER PADDOCK?
On the way out, you have the chance to buy your own sunflower seeds or a seedling. Maybe you can start your own little paddock when you get home?
It’s worth keeping in mind this is one of those ‘now or never’ experiences because sunflower season can be really limited – literally just a week or two. And this year (2025) Mother Nature has been particularly brutal with about 20% less rain than usual, so the sunflowers are a little shorter, and won’t be around as long as other years. Still awesome, of course, but you’ll want to get a move on!
