Love Sunflowers? Expect To See Blooms Soon But Smaller Plants

Are you a fan of sunflowers? The good news is that area sunflower farms are seeing plenty of plants popping up in their fields, the bad news is the plants aren't going to be as big this year due to the ongoing drought.

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Smude Sunflower Oil posted about their flowers yesterday indicating that the bloom should be on the way in the next two weeks, but those that enjoy the bright yellow flowers should temper their expectations as the normally large plants are much smaller this year due to the drought.

The sunflowers are getting close to blooming! Because of the drought, we’re in right now, the sunflowers are going to be really short—but they’ll still be beautiful! We figure about 2 more weeks and they will be in full bloom!

The latest US Drought Monitor Index has Minnesota in various stages of drought, with portions of Central Minnesota in an area that is classified as being in 'extreme drought', other portions of the state are classified as moderate drought and abnormally dry.

Most of Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the lower Great Lakes Region recorded subnormal rainfall, persisting or worsening dryness in these regions. A new area of exceptional drought (D4, the most intense category) was introduced in parts of central Missouri while D3 covered a large part of central and northeastern Missouri, southeastern Iowa, and southwestern Wisconsin. - US Drought Monitor

The dry conditions aren't just affecting producers as we are driving around we see browning lawns, and landscaping looking dry and in some cases starting to turn colors like they do during the fall.

Hopefully, the weather pattern changes in the next few weeks to offer up some relief in the form of rain for not only our lawns, plants, and crops but our pocketbooks too.