Westhoughton sunflower turns heads in the neighbourhood

Hilda Mellor was surprised to find her sunflower had multiple blooms - seven in fact.

The 76-year-old has been keeping her garden in tip-top shape since the passing of her husband, Ian Mellor, in 2020. 

Mrs Mellor, of Cunningham Road has had neighbour David Prescott, who was close friends with her husband, helping her with the gardening.

She has wanted to keep the garden in good shape following her husband's death, as it was his 'pride and joy' - but now, after only having plants that sprouted one sunflower, one plant in her front garden has sprouted seven of them. 

Hilda is keeping her garden pruned in honour of her late husband, Ian Mellor (Image: Newsquest)

Mrs Mellor said: "I have never known it before. 

"I have got sunflowers out the back and there is only one flower on all of them.

"But with this one there are seven on it and another one ready to open. Whether that will open, I don't know. 

The sunflower has been grown by her neighbour, David Prescott (Image: Newsquest)

"David helps, he comes and plants the sunflower seeds. He said he has never seen anything like it. 

"He actually gets the seeds from bird feed rather than the ones you buy to plant."

Hilda and Ian got married in 1975 and moved into the home where she still lives that same year.

She continued: "Ian always did sunflowers. That was his main priority, the sunflowers, the magnolia and the fruit trees - he had two apples and a gooseberry tree. And the cornelias, they were all his pride and joy. 

David Prescott (Image: Newsquest)

"David does my garden, he does it religiously. What he doesn't know about gardening...

"He came here four years after us, so we have been friends all that time.

"David and Ian both loved their gardens, and if it was the other way round, David knows Ian would have done the same for him. He is doing it in honour of him as well."

According to gardening website Soak and Soil there are a number of reasons why sunflowers can sprout multiple heads - from fertilizer to a hybrid seed and even by sunflower pests.