See the giant sunflower that won the BlueSKY challenge

Back in May, we launched a charity challenge on behalf of our chosen 2020 charity: Mind.

Your mission was to grow the tallest sunflower you could over a four-month period, and lots of green-fingered clients and BlueSKY staff carefully nurtured their plants over the summer months.

Despite a year of extremes in the garden: a dry and sunny spring, tropical nights and summer storms, some sunflowers withstood all that was thrown at them and grew tall.

Many sunflowers passed the two-metre mark, but the winner was a magnificent 3 metres 61 cm grown by Lesley and Grahame Hawker. That’s Grahame up a ladder showing off his winning plant!

Congratulations to them – Lesley says she is planning on harvesting the seeds and making a fortune selling them (a sound financial plan if ever we saw one). We, on the other hand, will leave them for the birds to enjoy.

Indeed, here’s our very own Phil’s effort – a beautiful bloom but without quite the same height…

As well as our respect, Lesley and Grahame also win a small vase decorated with a handcrafted sunflower inspired motif, some plastic sunflowers, and a certificate!

Thank you to everyone who took part and helped us support Mind; our charity of the year.