A friend was excited about planting her first sunflower seeds and looking forward to their spectacular, happy-looking flowers (the large flower head is made up of countless little individual flowers).

In his book, “Annuals for Connoisseurs,” Wayne Winterrowd said, “on land too poor for corn or other cereals, as much as 200 bushels of sunflower seed can be produced from a sowing of about 3 quarts.” ...