Popular eastern Ontario sunflower farm closes for season due to excessive rain

At this time of year, the sunflowers at Sultan Farm and Sanctuary would normally be in full bloom.

But due to excessive rain this season, the sunflower farm in Ashton says it has been forced to close its doors until next year.

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"It was just too wet," says owner and farmer Omar Sultan.

"It would come in 40 millimetre spurts to just flood everything out and wash everything out of the ground."

Sultan says much of his farmland is still mud, despite sitting under the August sun. Small ponds of water still haven't been absorbed by the ground, and ditches are filled with rainwater.

"When it just kept coming constantly, big dumps of rain, flooding everything out, we didn't stand a chance."

Since the beginning of June, Ottawa has received 399.7mm of rain. That is more than any of the previous five years during that time span, and the same number of years Sultan has been planting his sunflowers.

The farm says it normally plants 325,000 sunflowers across its ten acres, creating a popular attraction for tourists, families, wedding parties, and photographers.

"We've seen people have picnics, a lot of people come in and take pictures, it's become an annual tradition for a lot of people," says Jessica Sultan, co-owner of the farm.

"And when I say a lot, I mean that thousands and thousands of people come through."

Admission to the sunflower field is free for visitors, but the farm does accept donations, which goes towards caring and feeding for the rescued farm animals housed on site.

"Normally in a summer we would have enough money donated that would it would cover almost the full amount of the care and feeding of the animals for the entire year," says Jessica. "So this really is devastating for us."

"We did make the decision to close the doors to the public this year, just because we feel there's not much to see this year," added Sultan.