A Colchester dad is hoping sunflower power will win him a national gardening prize - and maybe even a world record.

Despite a soggy summer, the tallest of Clacton pie and mash man Steven Mead's giant blooms already reaches to the eaves of his house - and it is set to keep growing till mid-September.

The green-fingered father-of-two, of Ipswich Road, used seeds from a flower he entered in last year's Great British Show, which was named second-biggest in East Anglia, and appeared in a BBC programme about the contest last month.

He hopes the best of this year's crop, currently touching 17ft, will win him first place in the region and put him in with a chance of the overall UK award.

Getting on for three times the height of gangly 6ft 7ins soccer ace Peter Crouch, the monster plant is still dwarfed by the world's tallest-ever sunflower, which measured a whopping 25ft 5.4ins.