I’m a Sunflower Boy
I’m a Kansas boy, born and bred. From the Walnut Valley to the Arikaree Breaks, from the Four-State Lookout in White Cloud to Dorothy’s House in Liberal, and dozens of places in between, I’ve explored my home state fervently.
Speaking of that house, I sort of talked about Dorothy and Oz in my last blog post. If there are two things people think of when Kansas comes up, it’s the girl in the blue gingham dress and ruby slippers … and sunflowers. Kansas is the Sunflower State, after all.
Native Americans first cultivated the sunflower about 5,000 years ago. Many indigenous people grew it as a crop from Mexico to southern Canada. So, from the beginning, Kansas was right there in the middle. In the 1800s, travelers crossing this area on the Santa Fe Trail noticed the flowers’ presence. As settlement progressed, the sunflower became known as a noxious weed. A law was passed in 1895 to have them destroyed.
Kansans apparently had other ideas. While attending rodeos in Colorado Springs in 1901, they wore sunflowers as a badge to identify themselves as being from “the Sunflower State,” according to Kansapedia. Inspired by this, state lawmaker George Morehouse filed legislation to make the sunflower the state’s official floral emblem, and the law passed in 1903. In 1927, the legislature accepted a new flag design that incorporated the state seal and a sunflower on a blue field. (In 1961, the state’s name was added.) Kansas license plates featured sunflowers in 1942. So, the importance of the sunflower to the state’s image is evident.
Ironically, as of 2025, the Sunflower State ranked seventh among sunflower-producing states, following North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Texas, Colorado, and Nebraska, according to World Population Review. Also, the United States is eighth among countries that produce sunflower seeds. No. 1 is Russia, followed by Ukraine (where the sunflower is the national flower!), the European Union, Argentina, Kazakhstan, China, and Turkey, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Where am I going with all of this trivia? Well, for two years, my husband and I have journeyed to a farm that grows sunflowers — acres and acres of them. People are allowed to walk among them, enjoying their beauty and abundance. Just don’t pick them! (We saw some people who did, though. Shame on them.) Here are some photos:
And so, this comes back around to my book, The Summer of Falling Stars. It features the Sunflower Festival. This fictional event is an homage to state fairs I’ve attended. The food, drinks, carnival rides, the rodeo — it’s all there. Something dramatic happens to Riley and Kendall at the festival. Something that changes their lives. But telling you what happens would be spoilers! I do hope you pick up the book (when it comes out … in January, I hope.)
Ad Astra!
