Hollyhock a world beater

Avid gardener Beth Richardson is convinced she is the owner of the world’s tallest hollyhock, with the 6.78m flowering plant breaking a record set four decades ago in Surrey by 81cm.

“It was actually self-sown,” Mrs Richardson said.

“Last year I got some seeds, walked up the path and threw them on both sides and that one for some reason decided to grow.”

A friend of Mrs Richardson called up the Guinness World Record team after researching the standing record and getting an engineer from the village to measure it. The group of friends are now awaiting the next step.

Mrs Richardson said gardening had been a lifelong love, which is why holding a Guinness World Record would be “super special to me”.

“I would love it for the village and for Bunbury, WA and even Australia,” she said.

“I would love it to be able to say ‘we can do it as well as the gardeners in England’.”

The record-breaking height could extend further as buds were still appearing past the last flower.

It is not Mrs Richardson’s first world-record attempt, having grown a tree dahlia while living in Bridgetown which was pipped at the post when a man in Nannup’s perennial grew 10cm taller.

She said her advice for budding gardeners was “you get out what you put in”.