Favorite Thing Friday: Monster Sunflower

A giant is lurking in our yard. What started as a random sunflower growing on the edge of the grass patch has grown into a stalk of almost nine feet! Not bad for a seed I didn’t plant in a place reserved for grass and jasmine vines. Somehow, one little sunflower seed landed in this spot and decided he like it there enough to sprout and grow and grow and grow and grow …

Reaching above the roof! The garden rabbit is a teeny, tiny creature compared to the giant. Photo by: c.b.w. 2014

I’ve planted sunflowers in the garden box and along the fence, but none of them ever reached the height and size of what I now call my sunflower tree. When he first popped through the grass back in early February, I thought he’d grow to four or five feet (like most of the random sunflowers that sometimes show up in the yard), give a little burst of yellow, and fade away. Boy, was I wrong! This thing is huge and it’s been really fun to watch it get taller.

When it hit six feet, it started to fall over from its own weight, so I propped it against a lattice.  When it grew a couple more feet, I had to bring in a metal patio chair to hold the weight – he keeps leaning further and further over to reach the afternoon sun. A huge bud sits at the top of the stalk and it’s getting bigger every day. I am anxiously waiting for a big, bright yellow sunflower to bloom.

Of course, the garden rabbit is fascinated by the biggest sunflower he’s ever seen. The leaves alone are three times bigger than him!

That’s a mighty big salad! Photo by: c.b.w. 2014

Don’t worry, he didn’t break this particular leaf. It got stuck in the patio chair when I was trying to find a safe place for the sunflower to rest.

The stem (or trunk!) is a good three inches around, which makes me wonder just how big the root system is on this monster! The rabbit better not get any ideas about nibbling.

Now, that’s a sunflower stem! Photo by: c.b.w. 2014

From where the rabbit sits, this sunflower looks a lot like something that’s only possible with three magic beans. Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman!

Keep climbing! Photo by: c.b.w. 2014

 

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What’s your favorite thing this week?

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c.b.w. 2014