"The Sunflower Garden Circle decided in 2004 that the garden circles needed to start doing more for DeLand in terms of community gardening. The circles already plant and maintain all the planters in downtown DeLand, as well as Azalea park, and The Sensory Garden, but we decided to build a walking park that everyone could enjoy. Sunflower park is located in downtown DeLand on the corner of Church St. and Alabama Ave. It is a parcel of land donated to the city by the Burt Fish Foundation. The city and the Sunflower Circle worked very closely together to actualize this vision. The sunflower circle applied for an ECHO grant and received over $96,000 and raised approximately &100,000 in the two year span it took to put this park together. The monies were raised by auctions, annual father daughter dances, donation-corporate and private, and naming rights to trees, benches, the stage and the water fountain.

The park consist of a walking path, many native fl. plants, and five scenes from the book Alice in Wonderland, for which the park's theme comes from. The first scene is complete. It is a large pocket watch depicting the scene in which Rabbit, who is "late for a very important date". The other 4 scenes are still available for sponsorship. We hope to include the queen's rose garden, the tea party, the chess shire cat, and one of the other scenes as well." To find out more information on the park, Garden Clubs, or how you can sponsor a scene, please contact Natasha Watts at 386.212.2812 or Dagny Robertson at 386.736.2242.