A father and daughter in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island 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鈥檚 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.

鈥淚 tried to measure it yesterday actually,鈥� said Brown. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 get up there high enough with the ladder, so we used the guttering system, because it鈥檚 about the right height of the house. So I took a measurement down to the gutter and it鈥檚 [about 14 feet, eight inches], 14-9 give or take. It鈥檚 a monster.鈥�

Brown only began gardening last year, with less than satisfactory results, but he is learning.

鈥淭his is my second time doing this too,鈥� said Brown. 鈥淚鈥檝e never grown sunflowers 鈥� my first year, last year, was a big disaster. I grew everything in one spot and lost a lot of stuff. This year, I鈥檝e got carrots poking out of the ground, tomatoes that are fully coming. We had so much zucchini, I鈥檝e got watermelon, but the sunflower, that鈥檚 the thing.鈥�

Come the fall, Brown said he鈥檚 going to harvest the seeds and he may even consider an entry at the Vancouver Island Exhibition fair in Nanaimo next year, if he can grow another tall sunflower.

Brown attended this year鈥檚 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.

鈥淚鈥榤 like, 鈥楬ow do I get in on that? What do I have to do to do that? I鈥檒l yank [mine] out of the ground and drag it over right now.鈥� 鈥� If I do that next year, I鈥檓 dragging that over. That wouldn鈥檛 even fit in the building,鈥� said Brown.

When asked what she thought of the sunflower, Jubilee said it 鈥渋s amazing.鈥�

reporter@nanaimobulletin.com
Like us on and follow Karl on and