(CNN) — Whether it’s for love of nature or love of Instagram, sunflower tourism is blazing hot this time of year. And in some places, the nationwide heat wave is causing these photogenic flowers to pop their heads up earlier than usual.
Millions of Americans are under extreme heat watches and warnings. CNN’s Miguel Marquez has the latest.
Green Door Gourmet’s chief farm operator, Sylvia Ganier, told CNN affiliate WTVF that its recent crop of sunflowers sprouted early, much to the delight of people who flock to get selfies and spend a little time in the sea of sunshine.
“The heat really pushed their bloom time forward,” she said.
However, early blooms can cause problems. Ganier says the overenthusiastic flowers are making it harder to plan and plant other flower crops. Because, after all, sunflower season can’t last forever.
Chaiwat Subprasom/Reuters/Landov
Sunflowers and agrotourism
If you’re interested in some midsummer sunflower spectating, don’t worry. Just because a few fields have bloomed early doesn’t mean the season is completely out of whack. Mark Carroll, a biologist with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, says it all depends on when the flowers are planted.
“Sometimes, I can barely get any work done, there are so many people calling, wanting to come and look at them,” he said. “Eventually, I put a message on the answering machine, letting people know when they were going to bloom.”
“That’s when they’re starting to dry out and drop seeds for wildlife to eat,” Carroll explains. “The seeds attract mourning doves just in time for the public hunting season.”
There is something very metal about a field of sunflowers transforming into a reaping ground for doves, but save those thoughts for your next Instagram post.
A social media hit
CNN Travel’s Richard Quest takes an insider look at Amsterdam’s favorite flower.
“The sunflower is certainly a hot flower this year, and it has been for a while, perhaps more than any other flower I can recall,” he said.
Diggs says that sunflowers are affected by the heat, and it could definitely make them bloom sooner. But places like the Sunflower Garden plant several times a season, so a premature bloom isn’t really that big of a deal.
“However, we did have a cooler spring than normal,” he said, “So that definitely slowed things down at first.”