A woman is delighted after a giant sunflower more than twice her own height sprang up in her back garden.

Green-thumbed Daniele Ligneau-Wilton, 73, says the towering plant self-seeded beneath a bird feeder at her home in Lichfield Avenue, Canterbury.

The sunflower first popped up a few weeks ago – and has since endured a plague of slugs, rain, drought and fierce winds.

But it has defeated the odds and now stands at an estimated 12ft tall.

"I've never seen anything like it," said Mrs Ligneau-Wilton, a retired Canterbury Christ Church University lecturer.

"The birds dropped some seeds on the ground and two sunflowers grew. Slugs kept eating them so one of them totally disappeared.

"But I put down some slug killer and this one picked up again, and it grew and grew and grew and grew. It is a fighter!

"I put a small stake at the bottom and that seems to have helped, despite the wind and rain.

"We're just amazed - it just kept growing up and up. I think it wanted to catch up with the palm tree behind!"

Mrs Ligneau-Wilton says the self-seeded giant comes as an extra surprise, as she recently tried and failed to grow a sunflower as part of a competition at her allotment.

"Mine just never grew," said the keen gardener.

"Last year we had one that was quite tall but it was half the size of this one. I've never seen anything like it.

"There's no way to measure it, but it's at least two times me," added Mrs Ligneau-Wilton, who stands at 5ft 2ins.

"It would reach the windows of the bedroom upstairs."

Have you grown a taller sunflower? Email a photo of your flower along with where and when it was grown to kentishgazette@thekmgroup.co.uk.

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