I know we didn't get our act together to measure our Sunflower on August 23rd. We had not long been back from our month in France, I was still ploughing through the laundry and we didn't have a clue where the entry form and details were. Colin had bought the sunflower knowing that we wouldn't really be in a position to give it a good home, but it obviously determined to prove us wrong. Here is the most un-greenfingered advice. Put your sunflower in a corner, ignore it, let the snails eat every leaf as they appear and then go away and leave it unattended. The snails obviously got vertigo because they gave up at about two feet above ground level. From then the sunflower began to look respectable. We went off to admire the fields of tournesols that stretch across the plains of central France and returned to find a tall, but skinny, plant. Suddenly at the end of August a flower appeared and at the time of writing (mid September) we are blessed with a glorious sunshine yellow bloom at the top of a 2m 9cm (6ft.10.ins) plant. Mind you, it got its own back. The flower resolutely faces into next door's garden so we don't get the benefit!
written by Rosemary Monk
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