Wise Acres

Wise Acres, at 4701 Hartis Road, in Indian Trail, is known for its strawberry fields and farm activities for kids. Their sunflower season is an early one, from June 23 to mid July, 2023.

Reservations are always required. The cost is $3 per person, with kids 2 and under admitted for free. You’ll get to spend three and a half hours on the farm to take pictures with the sunflowers, play on the playground, meet the animals.

One u-cut sunflower is included per reservations. Additional flowers are available. Vases and clippers are available for you to create your own bouquet starting at $15. Barrel Train rides are available on Saturdays and Sundays for $3 per ride.

When you make your reservation you can reserve a pizza (for Saturdays.)

The best way to keep up to date on what’s going on at Wise Acres is to sign up for emails from them. Then you’ll be notified as soon as reservations open for a certain time period. (They fill up quickly.)

McLawland Farms LLC

McLawland Farms, at 8632 Reedy Creek Road, in Charlotte, is a small operation (“2 guys and a farm”) that grows flowers that you can pick yourself. There’s no charge for a visit. They operate by appointment only. Sunflowers are blooming now (July 13, 2023.) Sunflower stems are $2 each. Small dahlias are $2 and medium dahlias are $3. With the rest of the flowers (zinnias, black-eyed susans and much more) you fill a mason jar for a flat fee. Bring your own mason jar to save $2. Look for updates on their Facebook page.

Draper Wildlife Management Area Sunflower Field

Sunflowers are planted every year at Draper Wildlife Management Area, 1080 Draper Road, McConnells, South Carolina. Via phone call, we learned that the fields should be blooming around the 4th of July. (We can’t promise it, but that’s the best guess!)

When you enter the Draper Wildlife Management Area, drive through the first parking area and continue along the road. You’ll get to a parking area, pictured below, that ends in a circle. Walk the path on the left, through the woods, to get to the sunflower fields. We understand that there are also sunflower fields that you get to from the path on the right.

You’re welcome to visit from dawn to dusk and to take pictures. Draper Wildlife Management Area is just 36 miles from Charlotte.  Please do not pick the sunflowers! Please understand that the arrival and the duration of the blooms depends on weather. 

Howard Family Farm

Howard Family Farm U-pick flowers, including a sunflower patch. Check with them about their schedule and pricing. They also have lots of produce for purchase! Howard Family Farm is in Harmony, in Iredell County, about an hour or so north of Charlotte. 250 Crater Road, Harmony. Follow them on Facebook for updates.

Carrigan Farms

Carrigan Farms, at 1261 Oakridge Farm Hwy, Mooresville, is popular for its apple picking, hayrides, haunted trail and swim quarry. Carrigan Farms has a sunflower field, which will bloom in late summer and early fall.

Bush-n-Vine

Bush-n-Vine Farm, 1650 Filbert Hwy, York, South Carolina, plants sunflowers every year. The sunflower fields are expected to be in bloom from August to October, 2023.

Admission to the sunflower field is $5 per person and includes one sunflower stem per person. Additional sunflowers are $2 per stem or $12 per dozen. There’s another flower patch with zinnias, gomphrena and black-eyed susans. Cut your own flowers from this field for $7 per dozen.

Please check Bush-n-Vine’s website about their policy for professional photographers.

Throughout the year, Bush-n-Vine also offers U-pick strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, peaches and pumpkins. Look for updates here.

Lineberger’s Maple Springs Farm

Lineberger’s Maple Springs Farm, 906 Dallas Stanley Hwy, Dallas, also offers u-cut sunflowers. They typically have a crop in July and another crop in October.

Kersey Valley Attractions

Kersey Valley Attractions, 1615 Kersey Valley Road, Archdale, plants over 350,000 sunflowers. In 2022, general admission was $15 per person, and that included one stem to take home. The fields should be in bloom in early fall. Archdale is a little more than an hour northeast of Charlotte. Reserve your time slot online.

Pockets of Poppies

Pockets of Poppies is a flower farm at 6515 Love Mill Road, Monroe, grows a variety of flowers, including sunflowers. You can go out there and take pictures and cut flowers to take home. There’s no charge to visit, just for what you cut. Make sure to check their website and Facebook page for operating hours.

Dogwood Farms

Dogwood Farms is a flower farm at 8096 Belews Creek Road, Belews Creek, in Forsyth County. This is northwest of Greensboro, so it’s about 97 miles from Charlotte, but they take their sunflowers really seriously here! They hold U-cut days every day of sunflower season. In 2022, the cost was $8 to go into the fields and $1 a stem. Cosmos and zinnias were $6 for a dozen. The sunflower, cosmo and zinnia fields should be opening starting in July. Look for updates on their Facebook page.

Springs Farm

In some past years, Springs Farm, at 1010 Springfield Parkway, Fort Mill, South Carolina, had planted a sunflower field and even had planned a Sunflower Festival. We will update here if we learn that they will have a sunflower field in 2022.

Waxhaw/Weddington Sunflower Fields

In previous years, the fields at the corner of Providence Road and Ennis Road have been planted with sunflowers. These have bloomed later in the season, around August.  We don’t know the farmer’s plans for 2023. Here’s a good article about the Waxhaw Sunflower Fields.

15 Fun Sunflower Facts

There’s something magical about a sunflower, and people can’t resist being drawn to them. Here are some interesting sunflower facts!

1. They are native to America.
2. They need 6 to 8 hours of sun a day.
3. They “keep their eye” on the sun. Young blossoms, in a behavior called “heliotropism,” will follow the sun during the day.
4. The French word for sunflower is “tournesol,” which literally means “turns with the sun.”
5. Mature sunflowers face east.
6. The tallest sunflower on record was over 30 feet tall, but your typical tall sunflower reaches 12 to 16 feet.
7. Dwarf sunflowers generally stay under 3 feet.
8. The sunflower’s head is actually made of thousands of smaller flowers.
9. U.S. astronaut Don Pettit brought sunflower seeds into space in 2012, and blogged about the the gardening process.
10. Sunflowers have been used in foods, medicines, dyes and oils. 
11. You can use sunflowers as a homemade scrubbing pad.
12. Not all sunflowers are yellow. There are also red and purple varieties.
13. Sunflowers can self-pollinate if no bees are around to transfer pollen to the stigma. The stigma can twist around to reach its own pollen, and in that case, will produce seeds that grow into plants identical to the one they came from.
14. There are about 70 species of sunflowers.
15. Sunflowers are sometimes used for biofuel.