Below are some pictures of our 2009 garden – the highlight this year was our attempt at growing sunflowers for the first time. In fact Jack, Dad, and Papa had a sunflower growing contest to see who could grow the biggest sunflower. Dad and Papa are still disputing the preliminary results, but there is an early favorite 🙂
Jack’s sunflower
Total Height: 8ft 11 inches
Stem Base Circumference: 7.5 inches
Head Diameter: 16 inches (petals not included)
Head Circumference: 48.5 inches
Longest Leaf: 16 inches
Dad’s sunflower
Total Height: 8ft 5 inches
Stem Base Circumference: 8 inches
Head Diameter: 13.5 inches (petals not included)
Head Circumference: 43 inches
Longest Leaf: 22 inches
Papa’s Sunflower
Total Height: TBD
Stem Base Circumference: TBD
Head Diameter: TBD
Head Circumference: TBD
Longest Leaf: TBD
*disclaimer – Papa had an issue with squirrel who ate his original sunflower when it was a few days old. His second sunflower was not from the same seed stock.
Also when measuring the head diameter Guinness says you should measure from flower tip to flower tip, but to me that seems a little cheap. If we had done this it would have added another 6-8 inches to our measurements as most of the petals are 3-4 inches long.
FYI – the world record for sunflower largest sunflower head is 32 1/4 inches grown by Emily Martin in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada in 1983.
The record for the tallest sunflower is 25ft 5 1/2 inches grown by M Heijms in Oirschot, Netherlands in 1986.
