The giant sunflower found in Louise Labrecque’s vegetable garden. Source: Louise Labrecque
Question: A giant sunflower grew in my vegetable garden without my having planted it. It’s gorgeous and looks like a big bouquet of flowers. Is it common to see such a tall sunflower?
Louise Labrecque
Answer: Sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) come in a wide range of sizes, from dwarf (less than 1 foot/30 cm) to giant, normally between 9 and 13 feet (2.7 m and 3.5 m) tall. Your plant is therefore a bit taller than normal and certainly very impressive, but far from the tallest sunflower ever grown (the world record height for a sunflower is 30 feet 1 inch [9.17 m]), or almost 3 stories high!
Also, it’s very common for sunflowers to show up all on their own in gardens or fields. Often birds or squirrels carry sunflower seeds a good distance from their source, usually a sunflower field or a bird feeder. For example, I find sunflowers in my container gardens every summer, plus peanut plants, all planted by a busy family of chipmunks.
That said, a self-sown sunflower of this size, with this many flowers, remains extremely very rare. You certainly won the luck of the draw with this one!
From birdseed, maybe? Impressive size.
This is a beautiful and magnificent specimen. Maybe the Labrecque’s should consider harvesting the seeds from it. I certainly wouldn’t mind buying a few!
I agree: I can’t recall having seen a sunflower with so many flowers open all at once!