The sea of sunflowers won't bloom on the greenway this year. But there's an alternative.

If you make the trek to the Neuse River Greenway Trail expecting the sunflowers this summer, you're going to be disappointed.

The field of flowers has been an annual draw for residents and tourists alike near the greenway's Mile Marker 23. But this year, the city of Raleigh decided to plant soybeans in the former sunflower fields.

There will still be some sunflowers visible in the 1,100 acres that surround the Neuse River Resource Recovery Facility — formerly the Neuse River Wastewater Treatment Plant — but they'll be further back and not close enough to wade through or take a photo in.

The field's popularity peaked last year with several organizations, including The News and Observer, highlighting the spot as a perfect place for an Instagram selfie or as an area to unwind with a view. But the increased traffic, people trespassing on the wastewater treatment plant's property, people flying drones over the field and worry about injuries or snakes resulted in the city not replanting the flowers.

"Certainly there is an aesthetic benefit and the public enjoys them, but the main reason why we do it is so we can harvest those sunflowers, extract the oil — we have a process on site to be able to do that — and then we can turn it into biodiesel and we can run our farm equipment," said Edward Buchan, senior utilities analyst for the city's public utilities department. "It's a significant sustainability effort on our part."

And the fields are where the city applies its biosolids, the byproducts of cleaning and treating wastewater. Raleigh has about 1,100 acres of farmland surrounding the wastewater treatment plant that can be used to spread biosolids. All of the farming equipment for that land is fueled by the sunflower oil collected by the flowers.

But have no fear, flower fans. You'll be able to see the sunflowers at a different Raleigh-owned property: Dix Park.

The city hopes the flowers will be in full bloom before SunFest on July 14. Planned for 2 to 7 p.m., SunFest will include live music, arts and crafts, performance artists, vendors and food trucks at the Flowers Fields, at 2105 Umstead Drive. The actual field of sunflowers, though, is off of Hunt Drive near the soccer fields.

This will give people a chance to enjoy the flowers without hopping a fence and trespassing onto city property. People are asked to park at the soccer field parking areas during the weekdays and avoid the NC Department of Health and Human Services parking lots. Please don't pick the sunflowers or eat the seeds because they will be harvested for the biofuel.

"We don't want to have the same challenges we had last year with them — with people traipsing about the fields," Buchan said. "And there was even a traffic issue."

The sunflowers begin to bloom in late June and should last through mid-July.

This story was originally published June 28, 2018 at 10:19 AM.