Wheaton man sends seeds of giant sunflowers around the world

If monster sunflowers should take over the world one day, just go looking for Wheaton resident Todd Kelsey.

Maybe he'll be under a towering yellow face wearing a smile on his own.

The novice gardener was so impressed with the 13-foot sunflowers he grew last year that he sent the seeds to 40 or 50 friends.

Now the second generation of super-tall sunflowers are growing in yards and gardens in the Chicago area, on the East and West Coasts, in Cleveland, Ohio, and even in the Mediterranean.

That's definitely a foothold in the gargantuan flowers' march across the globe.

"It's pretty casual as far as world domination goes," Kelsey admitted in an e-mail. "Basically just an e-mail list where I send out some tips once in awhile, a sort of simple community to ask questions and share pictures."

Forty to 45 people are on the e-mail Sunflower Club list and five or six post blogs on the club's Web site, Kelsey said.

Kelsey said he is incorporating his sunflower experiment into his research for a doctorate in technical communications. The idea is to track the growth of the Web site, which, of course, is tracking the growth of the sunflowers.

Children can easily get in on the action, Kelsey said.

"There are several people who have kids who are growing them," he said. "Kids seem to enjoy how prosperously large they grow."

Kelsey's sunflower spree began after he picked up a packet of seeds at a British gas station and then some more packets promising giant flowers in Whole Foods. The seed packets said the plants would grow 6 to 8 feet high.

But Kelsey's flowers - nourished with a mix of cow manure and peat and some time-release fertilizer - grew a lot taller.

"For some reason, the idea of growing monstrously large sunflowers appealed to me," he said.

This year, though, he's been so busy sending out seeds to others, his own sunflowers aren't reaching quite the towering heights they did last year. Instead of 13 feet, the tallest measure in the 11-to-12-foot range. The growing season has been different too, he said.

"They're not doing as well this year," he said.

But Kelsey said he's not about to give up. His offer of sunflower seeds is for anyone who wants them, and he encourages other members of the Sunflower Club to share their offspring too.

Anyone interested joining the club and helping to grow a third generation of towering flowers may visit at sunflowerclub.net.