A GRANDFATHER who loves gardening is delighted after growing his 'biggest sunflower yet' in a South Cumbrian town.

William Storey, of Langdale Crescent, Dalton, has grown a flower with a stem so long, it dwarfs him.

The 75-year-old, who has been growing sunflowers for many years, was in polite competition with his granddaughter after a prank where she bought some sunflowers which looked better than his.

Mr Storey, who 'just loves gardening', has been keeping his granddaughter in-the-know on how his yellow blossoms are doing.

But he has outdone himself with his latest triumph - the family reckons that their garden treasure has bloomed to a height of eight feet five inches.

His granddaughter Sarah Ackred said: "He is not competitive, he just loves gardening.

"He has grown sunflowers for as long as I can remember and we had a bit of a joke where I had bought some already established ones a couple of years ago that looked a bit better than his - until I killed them - then I confessed they were bought ones.

"Ever since then, he updates me about his homegrown sunflowers. I think this is the biggest he has ever grown though."

And Mr Storey comes from a family well known for their impressive sunflowers. His brother Ken Storey was in the news in 2020 after growing a 'twelve headed' flower.

The Mail: Ken Storey with his huge sunflowers in 2020Ken Storey with his huge sunflowers in 2020 (Image: Archive)

While the whopping flower makes William Storey look small, it is still some way off the tallest sunflowers ever recorded.

According to Guinness World Records, the tallest sunflower measured over 30 feet tall and was recorded in 2014 in Germany, though it needed scaffolding to keep it standing.

While the current record for the tallest sunflower in Britain is held by Richard Hope, of Wigan, who set the record in 2012 with a 26-foot-tall flower.