Sunflowers reach new heights in Kingswood

In the last issue of the Voice we challenged every youngster under the age of 16 to grow the tallest sunflower in their garden as part of our Kingswood Parks In Bloom 2011 competition.

Many collected their free sunflower seeds from the Persimmon Homes sales office and rushed home to plant them and see how tall their sunflower would grow. Others took the option of choosing seeds from other sources.

The competition saw many entries from children across the development. We narrowed it down to four finalists who we believe have the tallest sunflowers, and went to see them to find out just how tall their sunflowers are.

A delighted Scarlett Jameson was pleased to be announced as the winner with her sunflower reaching a fantastic 9 foot 5 inches. She has won a family ticket to Flamingo Land and a £25 Next voucher. She said: “I entered the competition as it sounded like a fun thing to do as I have been growing sunflowers at school as well. I am really happy to have won as I have never entered a competition before and I can’t wait to tell my class at school during “show and tell” after the summer holidays.”

In second place, winning a £50 Next voucher, was Holly- Anne Westbury with a height of 9 foot. She said: “I had grown sunflowers in my garden last year and when I saw the competition I decided to use the seeds from last year’s sunflowers and enter. I have enjoyed growing the sunflower and there has been a lot of rivalry amongst contestants on our street!”

Isabella Wray came in third, winning a £25 Next voucher, with a height of 7 foot 5 inches. She told us: “I decided to plant the sunflower seeds because yellow is my favourite colour. I water them every day before my bath which is why I think they have grown so big.”

Unfortunately our fourth finalist, Joshua Harris’ sunflower was not flowering on the day we visited so a true measurement could not be taken. He said: “I was given the sunflower seeds by my school (Stepney Primary) so when I saw the competition I decided it would be a good idea to plant them and enter. I have really enjoyed looking after them.” Joshua won a big bar of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk.

Congratulations to all entrants for their fantastic efforts in growing the sunflowers.