By Luke Costin

After years of selling sunflowers the standard way, a friend of Anne McGrath suggested she do something amazing instead.

And so began a much-anticipated annual quest to turn a paddock into a maze of towering sunflowers that quickly became a social media highlight and a drawcard for her community’s produce.

“The smiles are really worth more than anything,” Canberra’s Majura Valley Farm operator Ms McGrath told AAP.

“Last year… a woman with stage-four cancer who loved sunflowers came along and ticked it off her bucket list.

“People don’t realise there are farms in the ACT.

“By us doing what we are doing, it’s opened eyes of the community and of government.”

A lack of spring rain made growing more challenging this year and scuppered hope of the 2.4-metre flowers achieved in recent years.

But some hard yakka to irrigate the field in time for Saturday’s opening ensured travellers and visiting birds and bees were delighting in the yellow-hued blooms.

Ms McGrath, who said the event would not be what it was without her children’s involvement, said it also showcased what small farms could do by thinking outside the box.

While some tardy flowers were still to bloom, she expected travellers had about a fortnight to take in the sights before the annual buds’ lights dimmed.

The flower maze is open seven days.