Where To See Sunflowers in Arizona

ARIZONA SUNFLOWER LOCATIONS

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I met up with this mom and daughter at sunrise and let me tell you, sunrise in a field of sunflowers is somehow even more magical than at sunset! Sweet Flower Home gives photographers who buy permits to their farm access to the farm all day, so we can do sunrise sessions for folks who are ok with getting up really early. Sunrise comes at about 6:20 AM in Arizona in later October.

There are lots of places to see sunflowers in Arizona, but in every location they are only in bloom for about 2 to 4 weeks, so here’s a guide to when and where you can see them. THIS ARTICLE IS A WORK IN PROGRESS!!! I am slowly listing all the places that I can think of, so I welcome you to come back to this article in the future, as I will continue to add locations. If you know of any places I have not listed, please let me know!

1. VERTUCCIO FARMS - MAY/JUNE

2. MARICOPA/RALSTON ROAD -JUNE

3. AGRITOPIA - JUNE/JULY

4. GILBERT AND QUEEN CREEK ROAD SIDES - JUNE AND JULY

5. FLAGSTAFF ROAD SIDES - LATE JULY/AUGUST/SEPTEMBER

6. MORTIMER FARMS -SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER

7. SWEET FLOWER HOME - ALL OCTOBER

8. ROCKER 7 FARM PATCH - MID TO END OF OCTOBER

9. MARANA PUMPKIN PATCH - OCTOBER

10. MOTHER NATURES FARM - OCTOBER

11. APPLE ANNIES - OCTOBER

12. SCHNEPF FARMS IN QUEEN CREEK

13. YOUR BACK YARD - ALL YEAR LONG

14. ANYWHERE WITH GUERILLA GARDENING - ALL YEAR LONG

In this cell phone video, I am taking photographs of my two young cousins at Rocker 7 Farm Patch. They are running around on the sunflower farm and I am chasing them with my camera and taking pictures of them. It is 2020, back when I dyed my hair pink and wore masks.. There was a storm rolling in. The day started out bright and sunny, but by the time we were doing this photo shoot, there were 15-20 mph gusts of wind and the clouds were rolling in. Which was really nice because the temperature dropped a ton in a short amount of time. They day went from feeling like summer to feeling like Arizona winter.

AGRITOPIA IN GILBERT, ARIZONA ~ 3000 E Ray Rd Gilbert, AZ

I recommend signing up for Agritopia’s newsletter to get info about when to see sunflowers there. Here’s what they say in their June 2024 newsletter:

Sunflower and Tomato U-Pick When: Saturday, June 15 & 22, 2024 6:00 AM - 9:30 AM Where: Agritopia Farm, 3000 E Ray Rd Gilbert, AZ What: U-Pick!! Join us Saturday morning and pick your own sunflowers and tomatoes. Multiple varieties will be available. Tomatoes:  $5.50/pound Sunflowers: $3.00/stem. Walk toward the fields and look for the big white tent near the sunflowers.  We'll have clippers available to u-pickers. Bring your own container or we'll have one for you.

I took this photo of Sarah, who I think is a farm manager at Agritopia (maybe that would be the wrong title.) A couple years ago, Agritopia opened the sunflower fields to photographers. I paid the studio fee and had a sunrise date set, but there was a lot of rain. Like one of those torrential monsoon downpours that just floods everything. There was no way we could have walked into the sunflower fields without sinking deep into mud. Sarah was soooo awesome in helping accommodate me and my clients for a different time slot and I really appreciated it. At the end of my photography session, Sarah gave me this huge bouquet of sunflowers. I shared some of them with my clients and then put mine in an emerald colored vase on my kitchen table and it was so lovely to have these gorgeous yellow blooms to see for a week or so.

MORTIMER FARMS IN DEWEY, ARIZONA ~ Mortimer Farms will have a Sunflower Festival this year in 2024 on these dates: August 31st, September 1, 7, 8, 14, 15, 21, and 22. Those are the weekend dates for their festivals, but they are also open all week long. So sunflowers should be on view from August 31 to September 22. I’ve gone to their Sunflower Festivals twice and I think one of my favorite things was how they planted lots of different varieties of flowers. I spent a lot of time wandering through a wild field of sunflowers of all different varieties and taking pictures with my cell phone. Later on, I found out there was a whole field of sunflowers that I never even visited. So that leads me to share this advice: This place is huge. Ask when you enter for directions about finding all the sunflowers.

One year they had an adorable pony garlanded with flowers. Here’s a photo from their website (note: not my image):

This image comes from the Mortimer Farms website and shows a pony dressed in flowers at their Sunflower Festival. Posting it here to show the whimsical way they approach the Sunflower Festival. I think one year they had a Sunflower and Fairy Festival. Maybe they will do that again for 2024. I am hoping to visit on Sunday, September 22nd, 2024, the last day of the festival, because I will be in the area for a family reunion.

This shows how long it takes to get from Phoenix to Mortimer Farms. In my experience I have never been able to get there quite that quickly, as I always seem to stop off at Rock Springs (where you can get the most delicious and unique slices of pie) and/or the Sunset Point rest stop.

UPDATE AS OF SEPTEMBER 15, 2024: I WENT TO THE SUNFLOWER FESTIVAL AT MORTIMER FARMS IN DEWEY, AZ YESTERDAY AFTERNOON AND IT WAS MAGICAL! HERE’S A VIDEO:

Sunflowers at Mortimer Farms in Dewey, Arizona on Sunday, September 15, 2024.

APPLE ANNIES IN WILLCOX, AZ ~

Apple Annies in Willcox, Arizona seems like the place to be in the fall! There are apples orchards, a corn maze, hay rides, 20 different varieties of pumpkins, and sunflowers starting in later September and going through October. I think if you are looking for sunflowers in Arizona that are classic, with those huge dinner plate faces, Apple Annies is your best bet, from the photos I have seen on their Instagram and Facebook. It looks extremely picturesque, as you can see in this photo below taken from their website.

I have never been to Apple Annies, but I am definitely going to go someday, hopefully this October to see the sunflowers. Just from this photo on their website I can tell it would be an amazing location for a photo session with these bright blue skies and the really pleasant background of Goldwater pine trees and mountains.

This shows the route from the Phoenix metro area to Apple Annies in Willcox. Depending on the route you take, it’s a 3 to 4 hour drive. I would almost definitely stop along the way, which would turn it into a 4-5 hour drive, at best. I might actually be going here soon to visit their cherry orchards, and I think my plan will be to stop in Tucson at a trampoline place called Defy with my 5 year old nephew who will be traveling with me. It’s just not a lot of fun for him to sit in a car for 4 hours. But if we break it up with a trip to a jumping place, we should be good to go!

SCHNEPF FARMS IN QUEEN CREEK ~

MOTHER NATURES TREE FARM ~ 1663 E Baseline Rd. Gilbert, AZ 85233

This is how Mother Natures describes themselves on their website:

Mother Nature's Farm is family owned and operated. We have been farming at this location since 1968, we planted pine trees in 1980, and our pumpkin patch we started in 1991. We provide lots of grassy areas for birthday parties or any other occasions you can think of. We do school tours for thousands of children. Mother Nature's Farm has so many activities, it will be hard to experience everything in one day. In October we have a pumpkin patch where you can select from thousands of pumpkins, and then use your artistic skills to decorate it as you wish! Visit us in December to pick out the perfect Christmas tree!

I’ve seen what I call wild sunflowers growing at Mother Nature’s and I have heard that some years they have planted rows of sunflowers that bloom in October. Check before you go to make sure that they have them. Here is a link to their website: Mother Nature’s Farm

SWEET FLOWER HOME IN BUCKEYE, ARIZONA

Sweet Flower Home in Buckeye, Arizona is a farm owned by Carrie Mayfield. She plants a variety of crops every year, including cotton, wheat, corn, and broccoli and then rents out her fields to photographers before the fields are harvested. (Broccoli is absolutely gorgeous for photos with its yellow flowers - something I did not know until I started following Sweet Flower Home on Instagram.)

I met Georgia and newborn Baby C at the Sweet Flower Home sunflower fields in Buckeye, AZ.

I got to photograph lots of mamas and their baby girls this particular sunflower season at Sweet Flower Home in Buckeye, Arizona.

ROCKER 7 FARM PATCH ~ 19601 W Broadway Rd, Buckeye, AZ 85326

Here is the link for Rocker 7 Farm Patch in Buckeye, Arizona. I have become extremely fond of Rocker 7 Farm Patch in Buckeye, not just because it’s a magical place of sunflowers, but because the people who work there seem so extremely kind. I discovered the place in fall 2020 and have done sunflower photo shoots there every year since. And since I went there so many times with all my photography equipo

From where I live in Tempe, the South 202 freeway is almost always my best bet for getting from the east valley to Rocker 7 Farm Patch. Sometimes Google maps recommendedtaking surface streets instead of heading north up to the 10 (mostly due to freeway construction.) When this happened, it took me in a really zig-zaggy way where I was constantly having to turn to get on other roads, but was ultimately pretty fun because I got to see parts of the valley that I had never seen before,

VERTUCCIO FARMS IN MESA, ARIZONA

SUNFLOWERS AT VERTUCCIO FARMS

Vertuccio Farms is located at 4011 S Power Rd, Mesa, AZ 85212. I have been visiting this entertainment farm for years and years, since I was in high school and there was pretty much nothing else out on Power Road. I had one of the most fun nights of my life running around in their corn maze with my friends one late October night, all of us getting lost in the corn maze and scaring ourselves, but in the way that gives you an adrenaline rush and is really darn fun.

According to this article by Zach Perry, Vertuccio Farms owner Joseph Vertuccio planted five different varieties of sunflowers across four acres, including purple and red and branching sunflowers. The great variety of types of sunflowers was one of the first things I noticed when I first scouted out the location on their opening day in anticipation of creating portraits for people there.

This glowing field of wheat (?) was growing next to the sunflower fields and had a few sunflowers here and there. I thought it would make a beautiful backdrop for model Taylor ( @ tjstravelingtales on Instagram ) Around 7 PM on June 1st this location just catches the light in an amazing way! I love summer nights, even when it is hot, just because they can be so beautiful!

SUNFLOWERS IN YOUR

BACK YARD IN ARIZONA

This is where you can get native seeds, in other words seeds that Sunflower seeds from Native Seeds in Tucson sells that are known to grow well in the Arizona desert. There’s a group on Facebook called The Sassy Sunflower - Arizona’s Sunflower and Flower Growing Group where you can get advice on growning sunflowers in the desert and get to see everyone’s gardens.

SCHNEPF FARMS IN QUEEN CREEK ~ Schnepf Farms 24810 S Rittenhouse Rd. Queen Creek, Arizona 85142

Currently I do not see anything on the Schnepf Farms website about sunflowers, but if you go to buy tickets for their October 2024 Pumpkin and Chili Festival, look what they show!!!(emphasis mine):

 $25.95 per person* 2 and under are free! Admission includes:

***********1 acre Sunflower Fields*************

Photo opportunities Bon fires Live Bands every night Roller Coaster Hyperloop Ropes CourseHuff N Puff Traincarts NEW Tilt a Whirl Ride NEW Zip lines Jumping pillows petting zoo lawn games  Hillbilly Bob's Pig races Stunt Dog Show Back by Pop Demand Entertainment Flying farmers Ride Bonfires 4 acre maze featuring SNOOPY 10 acre "Celebrity"  corn maze honeybee adventure Ride carousel rides Play yards Ropes Course Rock wall  Swinging lady bugz Ride Mini golf - 9 holes of fun! Sweet Shop Pig Shack (NEW)   Toy Shoppe  Schnepf Family MuseumGLOW Shop * does not include: Train, Food, Pumpkins & Haunted Bus Hay rides Line Dancing Nightly NEW starts at 7pm

I will absolutely be going to check out their sunflowers, along with everything else! I will report back!

Lauren Lee Mural

In Arizona, we have soooo many talented muralists and gorgeous murals. I am absolutely amazed sometimes at the talent of muralists that exists here in the Phoenix area. By being involved in downtown Phoenix, I have gotten to know a lot of the muralists, or at least become a little bit acquainted with them. At least enough to follow them on Facebook and see what they are up to!

In 2012, I met Lauren Lee when she was painting for the Phoenix Festival of the Arts, organized by Hugo Medina and Joseph Benesh. I already knew of Lauren Lee as the painter of the Three Birds mural on the greenHaus building on Roosevelt Row. Since then, she has painted so many other enchanting murals. Some of them are in Tempe, and since I live in Tempe, I will purposely drive home down streets where I know they exist in order to see them. One of my absolute favorites is Don’t Wake the Dreamer on Hardy near 5th Street.

When I met up with Eliza, pictured here, and her mom, we first met on the Arizona State University campus. I love doing photos there because you get a great variety of backgrounds with nature and cool looking buildings, and it’s never crowded on the weekends. It’s got a lot going for it, but it’s not very colorful. I wanted Eliza to have some images with bright color, so right before sunset, we headed to see Don’t Wake the Dreamer. Scroll down to the end of these images to see the soft, blurry, dreamy last photos. It was getting very dark at this point, so we didn’t have much light, hence: soft, dreamy, blurry.

Which seems pretty much perfect! Eliza was finishing up one part of her life and on to the next. I hope her dreams for this next part of her life come true!

Are you looking for high school or college grad senior photos? You graduating people are one of my absolute favorite subjects to photograph! We go all over and have a little adventure and get tons of good stuff.

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