If you fail to achieve your dream, try and then try again, says Fort Wayne, Indiana, resident Alex Babich, who's managed to grow the unofficial world's tallest sunflower after multiple attempts to best the US record. Babich's efforts were featured in a 2024 award-winning documentary called Bloom, which concluded with the extreme gardener failing to beat the US record height of 26 feet, 5 inches. However, film crews were on hand again this year as Babich seemingly beat the US record—and then the world record of 30 feet, 1 inch, set in Germany. Babich's sunflower—dubbed Clover after his young son left a four-leaf clover on the plant for good luck—was 30 feet, 7 inches tall as of Thursday, WANE reports. By Saturday, it was 31 feet, 1 inch, according to Babich.
"It feels so unreal even saying this ... I am beating the Guinness World Record by a Foot, and this Sunflower is still growing," Babich wrote on Facebook. If the record is confirmed by Guinness, he'll be the first American to claim the title for world's tallest sunflower, per WANE. A Ukrainian immigrant who escaped the Chernobyl disaster in 1991, he only began growing the national flower of Ukraine six years ago. He initially set his heart only on beating the US record, but once he saw Clover's growth this year—up to six inches overnight—he started to dream bigger. He even acquired a cherry picker from the city to support the flower's growth, per UPI. He also erected netting to deter squirrels, who will hopefully be kept at bay long enough for an official measurement.
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