Bigger Than Mammoth Sunflowers

July 25th, 2010

I never really understood the interest in growing monster vegetables to see how big they can get. To me, the point of vegetable growing is to eat the things. But more often than not once a vegetable reaches gigantic proportions it is no longer edible.

But perhaps it’s akin to my fascination with  sunflowers. I have grown short, bouquet-worthy sunflowers. I have grown stunning, nearly black sunflowers. I have grown dainty sunflowers. But what I really adore is a colossal sunflower. Towering sunflowers. The kind of sunflowers that makes visitors stop and say, “Is that real?”

Until this year the tallest sunflowers I have grown were Mammoth. They grew to about 8 or 9 feet, towering over the rest of the garden.

But this year I grew Titans—the biggest yet.  I measured them this morning at 12 feet tall.

Visitors ask me if they are staked because it seems so improbable that a flower on a single stem that tall could stand up without assistance. But the stalks are nearly as round as my wrist,  so they are standing tall all on their own.

Now, what’s bigger than a Titan?

Posted In: Flowers, Gardening

Tags: sunflowers

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