A father and daughter in Nanaimo are marvelling at a sunflower that has grown as tall as their house.
Jason Brown received a heart-shaped craft with sunflower seeds on it from daughter Jubilee for Father’s Day. Jubilee asked Brown to plant some of the seeds and together they watered them, with one growing taller than the others. Besides the fact it is next to the compost box, Brown has no other explanation for why it has grown so tall.
“I tried to measure it yesterday actually,” said Brown. “I can’t get up there high enough with the ladder, so we used the guttering system, because it’s about the right height of the house. So I took a measurement down to the gutter and it’s [about 14 feet, eight inches], 14-9 give or take. It’s a monster.”
Brown only began gardening last year, with less than satisfactory results, but he is learning.
“This is my second time doing this too,” said Brown. “I’ve never grown sunflowers … my first year, last year, was a big disaster. I grew everything in one spot and lost a lot of stuff. This year, I’ve got carrots poking out of the ground, tomatoes that are fully coming. We had so much zucchini, I’ve got watermelon, but the sunflower, that’s the thing.”
Come the fall, Brown said he’s going to harvest the seeds and he may even consider an entry at Vancouver Island Exhibition next year, if he can grow another tall sunflower.
Brown attended this year’s fair and estimates the winner was about half the size of the one in his yard and was surprised when he found out the winner receives money.
“I’m like, ‘How do I get in on that? What do I have to do to do that? I’ll yank [mine] out of the ground and drag it over right now.’ … If I do that next year, I’m dragging that over. That wouldn’t even fit in the building,” said Brown.
When asked what she thought of the sunflower, Jubilee said it “is amazing.”
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