\u00a0When Ukrainian immigrant Alex Babich stands in his Indiana backyard craning his neck to look 35 feet (11 meters) into the sky, he isn’t just staring at a sunflower. He is looking at his roots \u2014 and his future legacy.<\/p>\n
The flower, nicknamed “Clover” and confirmed Wednesday by Guinness World Records as the tallest sunflower ever measured, stretches as high as a telephone pole.<\/p>\n
Achieving the feat holds special significance for the 47-year-old Babich since sunflowers are the national flower of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Born and raised in Ukraine, he immigrated to the U.S. at age 14 in 1991 after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Seven years ago, he started\u00a0growing sunflowers<\/a>\u00a0as a symbol of his\u00a0love for his home country<\/a>. Babich’s first sunflower was 13 feet (4 meters) tall, then 15 (4.5), then 19 (5.8). Quickly, he began asking himself, “How far can we take this?” Babich said the record-breaking flower was the result of “trial and error over years.”<\/p>\n “It’s one of my kids,” he said. “You’re out there every day taking care of it.”<\/p>\n Babich’s 10-year-old son also had an important contribution that earned the towering flower its name. He would climb onto the scaffolding and place four-leaf clovers on the sunflower’s leaves, for good luck.<\/p>\n “I’m going to die someday, but the stories of this flower will live on,” he said. “My kids will be telling this story to the grandkids.”<\/p>\n When measuring day came on Sept. 3, Babich was nervous.<\/p>\n About 85 people had gathered to watch, including several master gardeners from a local university and representatives from the Allen County Department of Weights and Measures. Babich was on a WhatsApp call with a representative from Guinness World Records. A camera crew was filming, and a drone flew overhead. Even Icy D. Eagle, the mascot of the Fort Wayne Komets minor league ice hockey team, was there, according to Guinness.<\/p>\n They used a 40-foot cherry picker to measure the flower. Clover was 35 feet (11 meters) and 9 inches (22.9 centimeters), 5 feet (1.5 meters) taller than the previous world record holder in Germany.<\/p>\n “It’s very emotional,” Babich said. “It’s as good as it gets for someone who grows giants.”<\/p>\n Growing up amid food shortages in Ukraine sparked Babich’s love for gardening. His affection for\u00a0sunflowers deepened<\/a>\u00a0after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n “We just pray that the war will end, that the killing will stop,” Babich said. “We just hope this inspires some people in the right places. It’s been long enough.”<\/p>\n The sunflower<\/a>\u00a0has long been a national symbol representing peace in Ukraine, and since 2022, it has become a symbol of\u00a0solidarity<\/a>\u00a0with the embattled country. In one viral video clip in the war’s early days, a Ukrainian woman confronted a Russian soldier, ultimately offering to “put\u00a0sunflower seeds in your pocket<\/a>\u00a0so they grow when you die.”<\/p>\n