Season One · Spring 2027
Free giant-sunflower seeds for every yard, porch and schoolyard. Contests all summer, a measuring crew with a very tall ladder, and a Harvest Party in October.
One lonely sunflower so far. Fix this.
Every planted sunflower goes up as a bloom in its approximate neighborhood. We never publish addresses, just Birmingham slowly turning gold.
Numbered pins are seed pickup spots; a dashed ring means it's still in the works. Dotted circles are neighborhoods waiting for their first giant.
Run a Birmingham shop, taproom or marina? Get on this map.
Run a Birmingham shop, taproom or marina? Get on this map.
One shared calendar for the whole city. The stem grows as you scroll. So will yours.
Dates firm up as Season One approaches. The mailing list hears first.
Join the listMarch 1
Join the list, then grab a free pack at a pickup spot or get one mailed: giant seeds for the contest, a branching mix for the bees.
Mid-March
Optional but fun: start a few seeds in deep little pots three or four weeks before planting out.
April
Birmingham's last frost lands around April 3; once it clears, plant into the sunniest dirt you've got.
May 1
First photo call: show the city your seedlings, name them if you must.
June 5
Taller than your kid yet? Stake anything over three feet before the storms do.
July 4
The giants pass ten feet; register your tallest for an official measuring visit.
August 15–31
Our volunteer crew visits registered sunflowers with a ladder and a tape, ground to the tip of the head.
August 31
Last day to send a photo of your best branching sunflower with every bloom counted.
Mid-September
Tallest Sunflower takes the ladder trophy, Most Blooms takes the Max Bloom Cup, and the Sprout Division kids take whatever they point at.
Early October
Bring your heads and stalks: seed roasting, the Seed Spit, the Stalk Toss, trophies, and the Seed Return table, where this season quietly plants the next one.
Entry is free and glory is forever. Prizes come from the season's sponsors and are announced before planting month.
Grow The Tall One as high as you dare. In Measuring Days, late August, a volunteer crew shows up with a ladder and a tape: soil to the tip of the head, officially recorded. The family record is fifteen feet. Beat it and we'll be thrilled, and quietly furious.
The Show-Off mix branches into dozens of flowers on one plant. Count every open bloom, photograph your best, and send it by August 31. The winner takes home the Max Bloom Cup, which is exactly what it sounds like.
Growers 12 and under compete in both contests with their own prizes. Adults may water, kids must brag.
Sprout days, knee-high days, taller-than-the-gutter days: send them all. We share the best at the Harvest Party.
Tag it #SunflowerEmpowerBHM
Early October, all of us in one field, every sunflower's second act. Trophies get handed out, seeds get roasted, and the plants themselves become the entertainment.
One seed, one chalk line, all the distance you've got. Kid, grown-up, and grandparent divisions, because this is a skill that ages beautifully.
Birmingham's answer to the caber toss. One dried twelve-foot stalk, one open field, one crowd yelling form advice. Judged on distance and style.
Bring your heaviest flowerhead for the official scale and your widest for the tape. Two trophies, one folding table straining under the goods.
One monster head, one guess per person. Volunteers count every last seed so you don't have to. Closest guess carries the head home.
The bar is a sunflower stalk and it keeps coming down. Kids usually win. Kids always win.
Everybody's seeds go into the big roasters while growers retell the season. Salt, smoke, and mild exaggeration encouraged.
Bring it back whole: heads, stalks, the works. The biggest seeds become next season's free packs, a mountain gets roasted on the spot, spare heads become bird feeders, and the stalks become compost and homes for native bees. Nothing wasted, and next spring plants itself.
Read the harvest handbookA campaign like this takes a village: a bee shop, a teaching farm, a brewery, and the folks who know soil.
Where the money goes
Our proposed beneficiary: a downtown Birmingham nonprofit that teaches thousands of city students to grow, cook, and love real food. Sunflowers that raise money for kids who garden. That's the whole idea.
invited
Anchor partner + seed pickup HQ
Irondale's beekeeping shop, with a brand-new pollinator education center. Sunflowers feed bees; bees feed everything else. Foxhound is our first-choice home base for seed pickup and pollinator know-how.
invited
Harvest party venue + collab brew
The season ends with everyone carrying seed heads into a taproom, and a limited sunflower beer called the Tall Boy on the board. Breweries of Birmingham: call us.
invited
Growing help + official measurers
Alabama Extension's volunteer gardeners: the folks we want answering 'why is mine droopy?' and holding the tape measure on Measuring Days.
invited
Run a Birmingham business? There's a seat for you.
Sponsors buy the seeds, fund the prizes and throw the party. See the tiers
The mailing list is the whole membership: planting reminders, check-in calls, contest news, party invites. And first dibs on the free seeds.
Seed pickup: Foxhound Bee Co., breweries, garden shops + more (see the map). By mail, free, while supplies last.
Yes. Seeds are free, the contests are free, the party is free. Corporate sponsors cover the costs, and whatever's left over goes to our beneficiary nonprofit. You'll never be asked to pay anything.
No accounts, ever. Join the mailing list and we'll email you when it's time to plant, check in, register, and party. That's the whole system.
Sunflowers are the friendliest plant there is: seed, sun, water, done. The grow guide covers everything, and we recommend planting three seeds so at least one becomes a monster.
A giant sunflower wants real ground, but a 15-gallon pot (or a five-gallon bucket with holes) in full sun can still send one over eight feet. The branching bee-mix does great in containers too.