Sunflower farm lucky to be in bloom, says farmer

The owner of a sunflower farm said the business was “lucky” to be open this year after challenging weather conditions.

Writtle Sunflowers has been operating for more than 20 years across two sites just outside Writtle, near Chelmsford, Essex, and moved to its current location in 2021.

Jo Pike, the farm's owner, said the site was now in full bloom. She added that a wet winter and spring meant that some sunflower farms elsewhere in the country could not plant their crops in time.

“We’re quite fortunate that we’ve managed to open,” she added.

This year, the family-run business has planted an estimated 80,000 sunflowers across 1.5 hectares (3.7 acres) - the size of more than two football pitches.

Ms Pike told the BBC: “Lots of people found it too cold to plant their flowers this year and it was too wet, but ours have done well,” she said.

“There’s several [other farms] that just haven’t been able to open sadly this year, the conditions just weren’t right when they were planting them.

“We consider ourselves very lucky that we’ve got this [crop] this year,” Ms Pike added.

Writtle recorded a temperature of 30.9C in July, which was the warmest spot in the East of England.

The Met Office said that East Anglia and the south east record warmer temperatures than other regions during the summer because they were less affected by the Atlantic climate, and they were closer to the continent.

Writtle has 300ft hills to the south and west of the village, which creates a sheltered area, a spokesperson for the Met Office added.

Ms Pike said the warm weather in Writtle created a microclimate, which makes for perfect growing conditions for sunflowers.

The farm, which welcomes between 7,000 and 8,000 visitors during the summer holidays, allows people to pick and cut their own sunflowers, as well as several other species of wildflowers.

Claire Hazard, from Brentwood, visited with her 10-year-old daughter.

"It’s just so peaceful and beautiful here,” Ms Hazard said.

“There’s like a whole farm of flowers,” her daughter added.

“It would probably take you days to count them all.”

Holly Bailey, from Basildon, 26, said she came to visit the farm for herself after seeing it on social media.

“It’s better than just going to the garden centre or the shops to pick a bunch of flowers,” she told the BBC.

“Here, you can pick what you want, make it what you want - and I think that’s a really nice idea.”

Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.