It’s that time of year when many green thumbs start hauling in their prized garden produce. Potatoes, corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, and more are all coming indoors for a future feast, but one can’t forget about those massive pumpkins and sunflower plants that are often part of competitions.
Alex Babich’s garden in Indiana is officially the proud home of the world’s tallest sunflower, according to Guinness World Records. The previous record was held by a gardener in Germany, however Babich surpassed the record by five feet, reaching 35 feet, nine inches! Officials had to use a cherry-picker machine to accurately make the measurements.
Babich emigrated to the the United States from Ukraine in the early 1990’s and growing sunflowers is his way of honouring his home country because the national flower of Ukraine is the sunflower. For several years he’s been growing large sunflowers starting with one at 13 feet. Through trial and error he grew larger and larger plants until his record setting sunflower stretched up over 35 feet towards the sun.
The sunflower will soon be featured in a documentary titled “Bloom” later in September.
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