Sunflower avenues adorn Oracle building

In mid-May a reader emailed to say, "have you seen the beds of sunflowers in front of the Oracle building in Northbourne Avenue? My husband had to pick up some papers from there recently and I was wowed. I love sunflowers. A gardener with some imagination!"

This divine communication, or oracle, was enough for me and I immediately headed north. The sunflowers were growing in long, double rows on either side of the entrance to the building. The plants were sturdy, covered in blooms and buds and attracting a buzz of bees.

Vince Malouf, the ACT facilities manager of Cromwell Property Group that manages the building, was delighted that the sunflowers were a hit and he invited me to see a mini citrus grove that he looks down on from his office. It is planted at the back of the building and only accessible to office staff. At home after hours, Malouf enjoys a Dirty Durras, a drink made by his wife using vodka and fresh lime juice.

The gardener in charge of this landscape is Leigh O’Shannassy who, with his wife Marianne O’Shannassy, own Horticare Garden Maintenance. Ten years ago the tenants of the building were asked what sort of plants they would like in the internal barbecue garden. Citrus trees were a stand out winner so he planted lemons, limes, oranges, mandarins and grapefruit. The trees are pruned twice a year and he fertilises the garden beds with Osmocote.

Leigh O’Shannassy has a rural background of parks and gardens, forestry and irrigation and is originally from Melbourne. He says he always tried to have some colour in the front garden beds year round. There are still some bulbs that he planted years ago that will soon bounce back into life in the garden.

The sunflowers were raised from commercial grade seeds that were planted in early February. Prado Red and Evening Sun sunflower seeds from Diggers that were planted in my garden last November were at their glorious peak in early March. They grew to two metres tall and produced about seven heads per plant in red, orange and bronze shades.

At November planting time I was sending out on request to readers seeds seeds of Adrian van Leest’s tomatoes and, with some, I included a bonus of Van Gogh’s landscape sunflower seeds. A reader, Lea de Courcy Browne replied with thanks and emailed, "When I was a girl in rural Victoria we used sunflowers to 'hide' the outside lavatory and so people could use the euphemism of 'I am just checking on the sunflowers’ to signal their intent to disappear 'down the back' for a while."

When our Canberra Times photographer visited Oracle to capture the images of the sunflowers he said they reminded him of the crops in France. Graham and Lou Tidy drove through Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur in September 2012 and the sunflower plantation that attracted them and his camera was near the village of Riez. Local produce in Riez includes truffles, olive oil and honey and the sunflowers would certainly please the bees.

O’Shannassy says the Northbourne Avenue sunflowers will be affected by severe frosts and that will be the time to pull them out and salvage the seed for next year.

Sunflower seeds are edible and the house-made muesli at Mountain Creek Wholefoods in Griffith contains oats, rye, barley, currants, flaked almonds, bran and sunflower kernels. You can add sunflower seeds to a healthy salad of grated beetroot, grated carrot and Granny Smith apple, sultanas and red cabbage, dressed with fresh orange juice, honey and olive oil.

Susan Parsons is a Canberra writer.