Hanalie Jacobs, an Elsburg resident, informed the GCN about the rapidly growing Helianthus annus, the common sunflower, in her back yard.
“I have never seen such a tall sunflower in my life, it is quite fascinating to witness,” said Jacobs.
This species of sunflower is also used as, among other things, bird food, which inspires Jacobs’s assumption of how the sunflower grew in her yard.
“I have a parrot, so I used to sprinkle the left overs in the yard, I think that is how it started to grow, we didn’t intently plant it,” explained Jacobs.
Jacobs also said they only noticed that the sunflower was growing in October, last year.
“My husband and I noticed that a sunflower was growing only around mid-October, but even in November it was not very big,” she said.
“The massive and rapid growth took place in December; we went on holiday and when we returned we were welcomed by this sky high sunflower.”
“It has reached the height of the roof, but it seems as though it will soon pass it, I have even asked my husband to tie it as it is falling to one side.”
Jacobs also thinks that the heavy rains in December might have contributed to the speedy growth of the sunflower.
