Karen Smaretsky Vavro and Phil Vavro stand underneath the 12-foot-tall sunflower they grew outside their home at 129 Cornell Drive in Center Township.

CENTER TWP — Phil Vavro can't remember where he bought the seeds and he said he hasn't done anything but water it daily. Despite that, the sunflower he and his wife, Karen Smaretsky Vavro, are growing in front of their home on Cornell Drive has already topped 12 feet, twice as tall as a normal sunflower.

“I planted the seeds, I don't know where I got them. I had a little packet of seeds,” said Vavro. He stuck them in a planter the first week in June.

It grows 3 to 4 inches a day, he said. He keeps a chart to measure the growth by the monster plant.

“I get a big stepladder and a tape measure, and the last time it was 12 feet high,” he said.

Penn State Extension Butler County Master Gardener Lisa Bernardo said, “I think 12 feet is unusual. Most varieties are about 6 feet in height. Some of the giant varieties can reach 10 feet, but 6 feet is standard.”

Bernardo said sunflowers mature in 70 to 100 days. Most gardeners plant them in May or June.

“They start to see the heads coming in August and September.”

“Then the petals go away and the seeds form. Some people don't want an unsightly dead head and stalk. They cut down the head and dry it, and then let the birds peck at it.”

Right now, people are coming by the Vavros' house to get a peek at the sunflower.

“People have gone by and taken pictures with cellphones,” he said.

His wife said, “These Chinese people were in Westwood Manor and this man spotted that and started taking pictures.”

Sunflower seed usually get scattered by birds and squirrels and chipmunks Bernardo said.

The Vavros say they are going to hold onto the seeds.

“I'm going to take the biggest one and plant those seeds for next year. I hope to get one even taller next year,” said Phil Vavro.

People can store seeds for future use in a cool dry place inaccessible to mice.

Bernardo said people can dine on sunflowers too.

The meat of the head can be eaten and the seeds can be used to make oil used in cosmetics.

While sunflowers are farmed as crop in the Midwest, Bernardo said in Pennsylvania, “I would think people use them as a garden accent and for feeding the birds and wildlife.”

The botanical name for sunflower is Helianthus Annuus. Whatever you call it, the plant sprouting at the end of the Vavro driveway is a botanical marvel.

“I never saw anything like it. It still keeps going,” said Phil Vavro.