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Vincent Van Gogh's Sunflowers

bédébédé Posts: 3,095
edited April 2023 in Plants
I hope I don't have to post a pic.  But will happily do so if asked.

When living in Arles, Vincent painted sunflowers.  It is said that he went out into the countryside and picked them from the fields.  This is credible.  What is less credible is that he bought them from a flower shop.

Van Gogh's sunflower are a mixture of different types of flower: single and double, yellow to mahogany (some colours have faded).
  
Have sunflower, the field-crop, changed since 1888?  They are now very uniform, all the same size and height, all single (if that word can be used for sunflowers) and, of course, all facing the same way.



 location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
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  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,039
    They all face the same way, because they are heliotropic.
    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited April 2023
    My sunflowers aren’t all single … last year’s were around 8’ tall, some had one bloom, some were multi headed  … they were probably fourth or fifth generation self sown plants from a community tallest sunflower competition using the seed we were given by the community group. 

    There are quite a few different varieties grown commercially by UK farmers … some with multi-heads some with single, for different purposes. So although all the plants in a field of sunflowers may all look the same, those grown by different farmers in different areas may be different. 

    This may be of interest … it’s an area we visit often, and the fields are beautiful when in bloom 
    https://www.vinehousefarm.co.uk/growing-sunflowers 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    I would imagine that, as with many crops, they've been selected for the best yield, so sunflowers grown as a crop will be varieties selected for the most oil from the seeds, not for how the flower looks. That could well have resulted in more uniformity, ie one variety is best for oil yield so that's what the farmers grow.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Speaking as a painter … it’s possibly worth explaining that when I’ve been painting flowers, the same vase full has often lasted me for a couple of weeks, sometimes more, as I’ve painted the flowers in their prime and then as, day by day, the flowers change their colours, then fade and wither and the edges curl … sometimes /often I’ve painted them as the petals become translucent and papery thin … and still beautiful. 

    I may then use the information from several of these paintings to inform another one.  I imagine van   Gogh probably did much the same to create his paintings which undoubtedly contain the ‘essence’ of what sunflowers are. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    Sunflower seed, like any other commercial crop grown on large scale, has indeed been selected to make the flowers and seed crop moure uniform but alos to shorten the stems - like modern wheat - to make it easier to harvest and also less susceptible to stor and wind damage.

    As for being heliotropic, the hectares of identical, short stemmed sunflowers I see grown round here do all face the same way, whatever the time of day, and no longer seem to follow the sun.  The ones I grow for the garden are usually older varieties and do turn.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • BenCottoBenCotto Posts: 4,718
    Jerusalem artichokes have nothing to do with the ancient city. Jerusalem is a corruption of the Italian word for sunflower - girasole: turn to the sun.
    Rutland, England
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited April 2023
    Sunflowers are heliotropic until they open, when the way they face becomes fixed to face the rising sun. 

    https://empressofdirt.net/sunflowers-heliotropism/

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    edited April 2023
    Dovefromabove said:
    Speaking as a painter  ...    I imagine van   Gogh probably did much the same to create his paintings which undoubtedly contain the ‘essence’ of what sunflowers are. 
    My question comes more from a painter and an art lover, but I thought that one gardener at least might have some knowledge of whether field-sunflowers were more variable at the end of C19 than today.

    Van Gogh is did paint copies of his own "Sunflowers".  He also included flowers at different stages of maturity and vase-age. 
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    Try reading the answers properly @bédé!
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    Sorry if I wasn't specific enough. I think selection for the best yield has over time will have resulted in less variation than in van Gogh's time.
    But @Dovefromabove made a good point about flowers changing as they age, and older strains may have included flowers that develop and age at different rates. Modern ones will also have been selected for all being at the optimum stage for harvest at the same time
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
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