Sunflower Baskets in Bodrum

Baskets with sunflowers: a gift that is read from the doorway

Nobody has to come close to work out what has arrived. The heads are wide, the yellow is loud, and the whole thing announces itself from the other end of a corridor, which is a large part of why people choose it over something quieter.

The tone is cheerful and completely unromantic.

Occasions it fits

A housewarming, a birthday in an office, thanks to a colleague at the end of a long project, a welcome back after a long absence. It also solves the awkward case of a man who never receives flowers, since a basket of sunflowers reads as a warm gesture rather than a courtship.

For condolences it is wrong, and for a restrained formal congratulation it is wrong in the other direction. Anything that calls for quiet is better served by white flowers in a low arrangement.

Where it does unexpectedly well is a place with high ceilings and no soft furnishings. A workshop, a studio, a canteen, a sports club: rooms where a small delicate posy would disappear entirely and this holds its own.

What the shape asks of the build

Sunflower heads are heavy, and in a basket they sit on a short stem with only a few centimetres of cut buried in wet foam. Set high, a head becomes a lever, the channel around the stem breaks up, and the flower stops drinking long before it stops looking healthy.

Good work sits the heads low, barely above the rim of the basket, with the stems pushed in at an angle rather than straight down.

There should also be a little air between the discs. Heads touching at the edges rub each other's petals every time the basket is moved, and the marks that leaves are visible on arrival.

Because one disc covers so much space, the count in these arrangements is low. A handful of flowers fills a basket that would need three times as many roses, and the gaps between them get greenery rather than more heads.

Water is the whole of the aftercare

A sunflower drinks heavily. The pith inside the stem is spongy, the leaves are broad, and the water they move in a day is more than any other common cut flower in the same basket.

The foam holds less than a vase would, so it needs topping up daily, and twice a day in heat.

Pour slowly at the edge of the basket until the foam stops taking it, and check with a finger before deciding it is fine: damp foam springs back and leaves your fingertip wet, dry foam crumbles. A basket that has gone fully dry overnight rarely recovers, because air enters the stem and the head drops, and no amount of water afterwards lifts it again. Keep it away from a radiator, which dries the base faster than sunlight does.

Season, and the end of the week

Summer and early autumn are the field months, when the discs come in larger, the stems thicker and the flowers steadier. Winter stock is grown under glass and runs smaller, so a basket of the same size is made up of a different number of heads.

Petals go first while the disc stays firm, and the dried edge is better left alone than pulled off.

One last practical point for the person taking delivery in Bodrum: take the weight from underneath. The woven handle on these baskets is decoration, and wet foam under several heavy heads is more than thin cane was built to carry.