I love growing sunflowers. Last year, though, my late planting resulted in poor looking sunflowers stalks. The one that survived only grew 3 feet tall and never bloomed. My friend Meghan, on the other hand, grew a monster in her front yard. I’ve never seen such a tall sunflower! It was beautiful! So, I decided that this year I would properly plant seeds this spring and hope to grow one taller than hers. Thus, the 2008 Sunflower Competition was born. The winner gets a good bottle of wine from the other. Then, Rob, a fellow Canadian friend, also joined in. Well, today my first sunflower bloomed! I have 6 more stalks growing tall but I fear I haven’t babied them enough with Miracle Grow. I didn’t measure it, but I’m 5′7″ tall so it looks like I might be buying that wine…
My first sunflower blooms... not as tall as Meghan's.
Meghan's monster sunflower from 2007
I love that you guys made a competition out of this! I have to steal your idea and try that out next year. Gorgeous flower regardless! I’m actually trying to grow a sunflower right now, but have no idea what I’m doing. I planted mine a month ago. It is like knee high right now and no flower. I had no idea there was such a science to it. Well now I know for next year! Thanks for sharing. You are so clever Leigh. Your ideas inspire me all the time.