by Anne Das
That’s right, we have our very own Sunflower Garden and it can be found in all its glory right here in the quaint and historical town of Bagan Datuk. It is about 131km from Ipoh if you drive, taking approximately 2h and is located in the most southwest district in Perak.
The Garden has visitors from all over the country coming for the Flos Solis maior (large flower of the sun).
Daily operational hours are from 9am to 5pm and entrance fee is RM10. From selfies to epic instagramable uploads or just to bask in the ambience of these beauties, definitely is worth the visit.
Farm owner Khor Weng Kiang said that there are more than 2,000 sunflowers on this 0.8ha land. In order to ensure that there are sunflowers blooming all the time, he had to plant three lots of sunflowers at different stages. He said the park welcomes almost 200 visitors daily to enjoy the view and take photographs with the giant sunflowers.
Sunflowers (Helianthus annus) are among the easiest flowers to grow, and they thrive in the heat of our climate. Helianthus, the scientific name, means “sunflower” in Latin. Not only do sunflower blooms look like the sun, the flowers also tend to face and follow the sun as it moves across the sky.
When they are young, sunflowers first turn their heads towards the sun, as they mature and start to produce seeds, they then become highly attractive to bees and butterflies and later, interestingly they turn to point towards the east for reproduction. There are many varieties of sunflowers and their colours range from reds to creams and have long been associated with human sentiments of loyalty, peace, happiness, and hope all over our planet.
If you are planning a visit, do lather on sunscreen, take an umbrella and a bottle of water, as it can get really hot out. Apart from the picturesque radiant flowers, the farm is also home to many ducks and fishes, and visitors are allowed to feed them.
Location : Sunflower Park
Address : A128, Bagan Sungai Burung Bagan Datuk, Perak.
Operations : Opens daily 9am to 7pm
Entrance Fee : RM13 for adults & RM10 for kids
Contact : Celine Tan @ 016-232 0031
Did you know?
The common sunflower is valuable from an economic as well as from an ornamental point of view. The leaves are used as fodder, the flowers yield a yellow dye, and its seeds contain oil, used for food. The sweet yellow oil obtained by compression of the seeds is considered equal to olive or almond oil for table use.
| Here are some interesting facts about Sunflowers,
which you probably did not know. |
| 1.Thousands of tiny flowers make up a sunflower’s head. The disc florets in the middle have both male and female sex organs, and each produces a seed.
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| 2. Sunflowers symbolize unwavering faith and unconditional love.
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| 3. They’re native, cultivated in North America as far back as 3000 B.C. for food, medicine, dye, and oil.
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| 4. A charmed Czar Peter the Great brought some back to Russia from the Netherlands. Today, Russia is one of the largest producers of sunflower seeds, producing 13 million ton a year.
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| 5. The tallest sunflower recorded was 30 feet, 1 inch, grown in Germany in 2014.
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| 6. Sunflowers help clean up environmental disasters. Fields of sunflowers have successfully removed toxins like lead, arsenic, and uranium from contaminated soil in places like Chernobyl, Ukraine, and Fukushima, Japan.
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| 7. They track the sun, a behaviour called heliotropism. Buds and young blossoms face east in the morning and follow the sun as the Earth moves during the day.
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| 8. The seeds have travelled to space. In 2012, U.S. astronaut Don Pettit brought along sunflower seeds to the International Space Station.
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| 9. NASA has come out with a ‘mind blowing ‘sunflower- shaped telescope dubbed the Habitable World Observatory (HWO). It was designed to look like a sunflower once it unfurls in space and has a 25-metre circular centre surrounded by twenty “petals.”
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