September 26, 2009|By Mary Gail Hare | Mary Gail Hare,mary.gail.hare@baltsun.com
Zach Rose is a farmer, not a painter, but he has inadvertently created a brilliant yellow landscape in northern Harford County. His fields of sunflowers have become the talk of the town, a magnet for photographers and a mood-lifter for those who happen upon the cheerful, end-of-summer vista.
When Rose planted 600 acres of sunflowers at his White Hall farm in July, he was thinking birdseed. He expects to harvest thousands of pounds of seed around the first of December from the sunflowers now in full bloom. They stand majestically tall along the roadsides, charming everyone with their sunny pulchritude.
"You can be having the worst day and then, you make the turn into Jarrettsville and suddenly because of the sunflowers, it's all better," said Stacy Stearns, a county resident.
To get optimum use of their land, the Rose family, owners of Clear Meadow Farm, often "double-crop" a field. They harvested wheat in July and replanted with sunflowers. For the past few years, they have sown patches of sunflowers, which produce seeds and oil, but this summer decided to go all out.
The flowers took about three months to bloom into long yellow petals encircling deep brown seed-filled heads and now fill numerous fields with an infectious perkiness.
"The sunflowers look a lot prettier than the wheat," said Rose, the second generation of his family to work the farm.
"The community is often complaining about getting stuck on the road behind a slow tractor or about the smell from the manure spreader. This crop lets the community see something pretty and positive about farming."
Neighbors have dubbed his mother, Nancy Rose, "Mrs. Sunflower," he said.
"You can't help but smile when you see them," Nancy Rose said. "People are coming from everywhere to see them. I wish I had a dollar for every photo shot of them."
Sunflowers are native to North America but planted around the world. Last year, U.S. farmers harvested 3.42 billion pounds of the crop - a nearly 20 percent increase from the previous year - with an estimated value of $669 million.
The Roses hope to harvest about 1,000 pounds of sunflower seeds per acre, which they plan to sell to F.M. Brown's Sons Inc. in Reading, Pa. "There is a big market for birdseed," said Marianne Brown Egolf, the company's general manager. Few onlookers can remain indifferent to a sunflower field in full bloom.
"Even here, where we have been planting them for 40 years, the fields are breathtaking and uplifting," said Larry Kleingartner, executive director of the National Sunflower Association in Bismarck, N.D. "It's their height and their almost human character that have drawn some of the world's greatest artists. We get calls from photographers from around the world asking us where is the best place to shoot sunflowers."
Bill Wossowski of Jarrettsville and Ann Rumrill of Rochester, N.Y., amateur photographers, have already decided on an ideal spot in Maryland. Earlier this week, both trained their cameras on the field across from the Jarrettsville Pharmacy.
"They are so beautiful that I can't resist taking pictures," he said. "I think I have taken hundreds. I thought about making a sunflower poster. This is a real treat."
Rumrill, who is visiting family, plans to use her photos in her greeting card business. "The family told me I had to come to Jarrettsville to see the rolling hills filled with sunflowers," she said.
Mark Lapourille, the pharmacy's owner, is reaping some of the benefit, too. Visitors often stop in the store and do a little shopping.
"It is such a nice sight that people keep stopping in our parking lot and taking pictures," he said "They are nonstop talking about sunflowers in the store, too."
He even gives directions to areas farther afield. "They are blooming all the way up Route 23 into Pennsylvania," he said.
The Rose family manages about 8,000 acres, much of it leased from neighboring areas. They consider sunflowers a crop that can bolster their bottom line and plan to plant more next year in alternate fields. They expect to earn about 19 cents per pound this year, Zach Rose said.
"Sunflowers give us a different market to look at," said Rose, who serves on Harford's Agricultural Advisory and Land Preservation boards. "Farmers have to diversify to keep up with fluctuating prices and operating costs."
While diversifying their crops, the Roses are helping to preserve farmland and expand agri-tourism, said C. John Sullivan III, Harford's director of agriculture. Lured by the promise of beautiful fields, visitors are trekking to Jarrettsville, Madonna and White Hall - and buying local farm products while they're there, he said.
"These flowers are not just ornaments," Sullivan said. "They are a food source and they are keeping farm acres in production."
While the seeds will contribute to the Roses' farm revenues, the sunflowers' beauty is truly fleeting. The flowers will droop in a few weeks and dry in the field most of the fall. The seeds will be harvested in early December, after all the other grain crops.
"Their heads will nod and they will dry in the field, until they get ugly," said Nancy Rose. "But, you can see the seeds forming, hundreds on each one."
