I have hope

All but one of my VIVA's shriveled and died. My Cravens are doing so so, but my Ripleys - Oh Boy. They are gorgeous. Green, sturdy, I am proud.

Get some pictures, I would love to see them. Send me the pictures I can put them up on my site.
My Ripleys are getting very bulky. I will have to take measurements this week to see if they now have the largest leaves and stem base out of all my plants. I've been pretty impressed by their overall growth. So far, the Bott's Strain are by far the tallest. I have one nearly 7 feet, and several others not far behind, and they still don't have formed the flower buds; so I'm hoping that it makes it to 14 feet or 15 feet. It's very easy to distinguish them from the other sunflowers by their look. You should definitely give them a try again next year. My Cravens had one disaster after another. I lost several of them, but the ones that I have look pretty good. The jury is still out on them getting very tall, but I'm starting to see signs of enormous girth. I planted most of my diane's strain several weeks later; so they are a bit behind, but I'm seeing some plants that look like they are going to get fairly large. One thing I learned early on is that you can never tell how big a sunflower is going to get until you see the flower.

Hi, I also love sunflowers. My crop this year is really doing well. I planted 5 seeds, 3 have come up, My tallest one still has not bloomed yet. I measured it with my son this evening, and it is 8'10". The tenacles are showing on top so it should bloom any time. Oh, I bought the seed packet 2 years ago, and they are expired by 2 years.

I just measured my tallest sunflower. It is getting ready to bloom. 13'9'' It is a big one.

here is a picture of mine,you can see my grandson in there among the tallest,he is 4ft 3in.Not a record by no means but he and I were pround of it the same..

Here is a link that might be useful: Tall sunflower