Alex Babich, a landscape gardener from Fort Wayne, Indiana, (on ladder at center) grew the world's tallest sunflower on record, Guinness World Records reported on Sept. 10, 2025.
Alex Babich, a landscape gardener from Fort Wayne, Indiana, (far left) and his family who grew the world's tallest sunflower on record, Guinness World Records reported on Sept. 10, 2025.

After prayers and a little luck, the world's tallest sunflower on record now stands nearly the height of a residential telephone pole.

A "monster bloom" grown in the backyard of an Indiana family beat out the previous Guinness World Record sunflower grown in Germany nearly a decade ago, the global authority on all things record-breaking announced Sept. 10.

"This truly is an incredible story. Guinness World Records just made the record official today!" Alex Babich, a landscape gardener from Fort Wayne who grew the plant and named it Clover, told USA TODAY.

How tall is the record-breaking sunflower?

"With some green-fingered support from his family," Guinness wrote in its announcement, the plant was confirmed to be 10.90 meters – about 35 feet and 9 inches – high, from the base of its stem to the tip of its highest flower.

According to the Indiana Native Plant Society, the plants are an "easy to grow species that tolerates a wide range of conditions and attracts a wide array of butterflies, bees and flies."

Babich, a first-generation Ukrainian immigrant, grew the flowering skyscraper at his Fort Wayne home.

“I was actually trying to accomplish the state record and hit the world record,” the 47-year-old man, who has been growing them for seven years said. Indiana’s tallest sunflower previously was about 15 feet high, Babich said.

The sunflower breeder: Brian Moore.

It's German grower: Burkhard Grendel

What was the previous sunflower record?

Clover broke the previous Guinness world record by 5 feet, according to Guinness. The previous record-holding plant was grown by Hans-Peter Schiffer of Kaarst, North Rhine-Westphalia, in Germany.

That mammoth, which Guinness reported reached 30 feet and 1 inch, made the book "no fewer than four times in a five-year period from 2009 to 2014."

How Clover got its name

Clover's seed originated in New Jersey and is a cross between a multihead and a single-head, Babich said.

The green-thumb king said he grew the monster “smoking the record” with help from his 46-year-old wife Nannette, 14-year-old daughter Ayla and 10-year-old son Keenai.

"When the flower was younger, about 10 feet tall, my son started picking a few hundred four-leaf clovers and put them on the leaf of the sunflower for good luck. I didn't think I could ever reach it ... but between my wife's prayers and son's clovers we made it."

And thus, the family named their beloved sunflower Clover.

Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X @nataliealund.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: With prayers and a little luck, this family grew the world’s tallest sunflower

Reporting by Natalie Neysa Alund, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect