You know about fall corn mazes. But, have you heard of a summer sunflower maze?
A few summers ago, Jake Gust, owner of Gust Flower and Produce Farm, started cutting a maze/trail into his farm’s sunflower patch. Today, his Sunflower Trail draws a couple thousand people for the Monroe and Adrian region each summer. It’s open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. This year’s season ends Aug. 31.
The farm is at 11998 Rodesiler Highway in Ottawa Lake. Admission is $5 a person and provides access to the Sunflower Trail, the sunflower cutting field and the verbena and zinnia fields. There is an additional fee to cut flowers.
Gust’s Sunflower Trail
The farm’s sunflower trail/maze dates back to 2018.
“I started the maze because I thought people might enjoy it. Corn mazes have been around a long time and are popular in the fall season. Maybe people would like to walk through sunflowers?” Gust said.
The trail started out small.
“I only had one variety and a ½ acre. Now, it’s 20 varieties and five or six acres,” Gust said. He cuts a random pattern into the flower field each year.
“Some use GPS. I have no real pattern,” he said.
Later, he added props to the trail, like an antique tractor and a giant cow on a trailer that he bought from the former Borchardt Brothers Market in Blissfield. Visitors also can swing on swings.
The Sunflower Trail is a popular destination for photographers and families, Gust said.
“People just like being out in nature and to walk through the flowers. In the mornings, we get a lot of families. They can see the pollinators, bees and butterflies and take pictures,” Gust said.
New this year is a scavenger hunt inside the trail.
“It’s for really little kids, under 5. They get a card and get a paper punch at the props (on the list). At the end, they get a popsicle. They get excited about it,” Gust said. “People like something a little different each year. Every year we try to make some changes.”
Other Gust Farm attractions
Gust Flower and Produce Farm has more than three acres of cutting flowers. The cost is $11.
“We provide the Mason jar, scissors and water,” Gust said.
There’s also a pen of goats on the farm and a country store featuring picked and you-pick-produce. Among the offerings is you-pick strawberries, even in August.
“It’s new this year to the farm. It’s a flowering strawberry that is producing fruit now. I picked 30-40 quarts this morning,” Gust said on Aug. 18.
He also sells peaches, cantaloupes, sweet corn and tomatoes. Watermelons are coming soon. Gust gets melons from Andy Stahl, son of his mentor, Tom Stahl. Gust met Tom Stahl years ago, through Dundee High School’s FFA program.
Growing sunflowers
A 2005 graduate of Whiteford High School, Gust has been a WHS agriculture teacher for about 11 years. He also leads Whiteford’s FFA progran.
“My senior year, I (also) went to Dundee (High School) to take agriculture and FFA,” Gust said.
After earning an agriculture degree from Michigan State University, Gust taught in Hillsdale County for three years before coming to WHS.
“FFA started (at Whiteford) in 2014. We have over 100 (students) in high school and about 50 in eighth grade. Every year, at least two to three go into agriculture (fields), like animal and plant science, greenhouse and landscaping,” Gust said.
He and his wife, Jessica, have four children, ages 9, 7, 5 and 2. When school’s out for the summer, Gust and the kids works on the farm. In the fall, Gust helps at his dad’s business across the street from his. Gust Brothers Pumpkin Farm is at 13639 Mulberry Road in Ottawa Lake.
“They open on Labor Day. That’s when I close,” Gust said.
Gust is self-taught in sunflower farming.
“It was a lot of online reading. I like to do that in the winter when you can’t be in the fields and digging the ground. The next best thing is reading up on different varieties and looking at catalogs,” Gust said.
To ensure a summer full of sunflowers, he plants several times each summer. The first crop usually emerges in mid-July. In one summer, he’ll get at least 250,000 blooms.
“Sunflowers tend to bloom after 60 to 70 days. There can be 10 to 20 blooms on a good branching plant. We always have fresh sunflowers,” Gust said.
Gust said there are hundreds of varities of sunflowers. He plants about 20 types.
“Branching ones, single-headed, tall, short, puff balls, double flowers. Sunflowers of all kinds,” Gust said. “We have a good climate (for sunflowers). They can (handle) drier field conditions. They are a tough plant.”
— Contact reporter Suzanne Nolan Wisler at swisler@monroenews.com.
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: There’s an antique tractor, giant cow, many flowers in this Ottawa Lake sunflower maze
Reporting by Suzanne Nolan Wisler, The Monroe News / The Monroe News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
