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  Let your Children Grow at Fowey Hall

 This spring holiday we invited all the children staying with us the chance to grow Fowey’s tallest sunflower!

The first stage was to decorate and personalize a plant pot in our Four Bears Den. Children were then be shown how to plant the seed and water, the seeds then were labeled with the child’s name and contact details.

Edwin, our gardener, is keeping a very close eye on them making sure they are all equally loved and nurtured! Edwin is also be in charge of measuring the sunflowers on a weekly basis - and these measurements will be recorded below so all young gardeners will be able to keep their green fingers on the pulse!

In the lead now with a with their sunflower at 26cm is Tilly Doughy, in second place is Sam Rose with a sunflower of 22cm and in joint third place at the moment is Eloise Oliver and Ashleigh Rochester who’s Sunflower’s are 21cm

In early May, after the frosty morning have left us, the sunflowers will be put out in the garden. When our sunflowers reach there peek at the beginning of August, we will announce the owner of the winning sunflower on the website and forward a very special gardening pack including children’s gardening tools, cress head, seeds and a Fowey Bear. We will also be including a voucher for the family to enjoy a discounted stay at our sister hotel, Woolley Grange during Junior Gardening week in May 2009, so your children can continue to grow with Luxury Family Hotels.

Fascinating Facts about Sunflowers
  • The largest sunflower head, grown in Canada measured 32 - 1/2 inches, and the tallest sunflower, grown in the Netherlands, was 25 feet tall.
  • According to Traditional Folk Wisdom, sleeping with a sunflower under your pillow will permit you to know the truth of any matter.
  • It is bad luck to cut down a sunflower - but we wont tell Edwin that!!
  • The sunflower has inhabited the earth for over 8,000 years and explorers saw their first sunflower in South America. They brought back batches of seeds and by 1580, the sunflower was a common sight in Spanish villages.
  • The American Indians grew the sunflower as a food crop and ate the calcium-rich seeds. They used the petals to make a yellow dye and the stalks made a light fibre for cloth.
  • The scientific word for sunflower is Helianthus, from Helios meaning sun and anthos meaning flower. Sunflowers follow the sun from sunrise until sunset.
  • In 1996, politicians from the USA, Russia, and Ukraine gathered at a missile base to celebrate an agreement to take apart Ukraine's nuclear warheads. They planted sunflowers where missiles were once buried. US Secretary of Defense William Perry stated, ‘Sunflowers instead of missiles in the soil would ensure peace for future generations.’
  • There are over 2,000 varieties of Sunflowers identified to date, but the largest, strongest, and most striking Sunflowers are the "Mammoth
  • Russians" which grow 6 to 12 feet. They are also know as "Russian Giants", "Tall Russians", "Russian Greystripes", or simply "Mammoths"
Its not only gardeners that have green fingers… so have careless painters!!!

 If you are not able to visit us in the spring holidays, why not get creative and take part in your very own sunflower growing experience by painting a picture? For every picture of a sunflower that Edwin our Gardener receives, he will send you a packet of sunflower seeds so that you can join in the fun! But make sure you write your name and address on the back of the picture.

All sunflower pictures will be displayed on a special board in the Four Bears Den for everyone to enjoy!
Fowey Hall Hotel & RestaurantEnquiries
Hanson Drive, Fowey, Cornwall, PL23 1ET
T 01726 833866 F 01726 834100 E info@foweyhallhotel.co.uk M How to find us
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