Staff photo by Fritz Busch Sunset Apartments resident Lavonne Kapsch on Wednesday stands next to sunflower plants that grew to more than 10 feet tall behind her apartment complex. Kapsch said she planted a row of sunflowers last year that grew about half as high as this year.

NEW ULM — Sunset Apartments resident Lavonne Kapsch planted a row of sunflower seeds last year and didn’t think much of it.

“I should have entered them in the Brown County Fair,” she said after displaying some of the plants that grew about twice as tall and twice as many as last year.

“I had to use a maul to cut them last fall. Some of the seeds fell out of the heads and they really grew,” said Kapsch. “I think these sunflowers have good seeds for birds to eat. My neighbors said they saw finches eating them.”

A few bees were seen flying around the sunflowers. They are considered a helpful plant to small pollinators such as bees that use them to make honey, using sunflower nectar, pollen and sometimes water.

She admitted she didn’t use any fertilizer or water the sunflowers herself this year.

“The groundskeeper waters the garden here,” Kapsch said.

This year’s crop is known in the botony sphere as “volunteers” — plants that grow on their own, rather than being deliberately planted and cultivated.

The world record sunflower reached 30 feet, 1 inch.

Standard sunflowers grow 6 to 10 feet tall.

Eating sunflower seeds help lower blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar due to their vitamine E, magnesium, protein, fatty acids, antioxidants and plant compounds.

In addition, sunflower roots can help detox heavy metals from the soil including lead, arsenic, zinc and chromium.