IT has been Hampshire's battle of the sunflowers.

Daily Echo readers have been keen to tell us how their carefully cultivated blooms have hit the heights.

But there was no doubt about who was top of the crop.

At only 4ft Elli Bundy is dwarfed by the 10ft 11in sunflower that she has grown.

The seven-year-old from Swanmore Primary School planted the sunflower seed at her Brownies group in the middle of June before transplanting it in her granddad's garden.

Elli's grandad, Dave Blanford, 59, a baker from Bishop's Waltham, said: "Since then it has just grown and grown but all we have done is watered it. The stalk is as big as her arm."

Ellie said: "I'm very proud of it and hoped it would grow bigger than the plant in Jack and the Beanstalk."

She was closely followed by the efforts of Hannah Machin, aged nine, who planted her sunflower in March. Now it measures an impressive 10ft 5in.

Really, really big Hannah, a pupil at Hollybrooke Infant School, Southampton, said: "I've just grown it normally and it's just become really, really big. But I don't think it will get any bigger now."

Dad Tony Machin, of Shirley, said: "She's grown quite a lot of them - about ten in all in the back garden. It was planted in front of a tall wall which gave it plenty of protection and lots of sunshine.

"It was grown just in the earth that was already in the garden and despite the dry summer it was only watered when she remembered."

The flower power fight was started by Bitterne resident Shirin Quaver, 49, pictured left in the Echo with her giant plant.

The dinner lady at Bitterne Park School, planted her sunflower seed in May and has been watering the plant as normal.

It finally reached 9ft 1in.

The flower can be seen by motorists as they drive past the house in Mousehole Lane, Midanbury.