Growing sunflowers for the 2025 Dalton’s Sunflowers in Kindergarten Project competition has been such an exciting and rewarding process for all our tamariki at Mt Roskill Kindergarten. We’re so very proud of our tamariki and the massive effort they made over five months to sow, grow, and tend all the sunflowers. There is something really special about sunflowers. They give you an instant boost of positivity and joy and symbolise warmth, adoration, and loyalty.

We often hear our tamariki talking excitedly about the sunflowers, saying things like:
“I can see the sunflower from down there — it’s huge!”
“I want to give my sunflower to my mum; she will really love it!”
“I think the sunflower is following me. It likes me!”
“Did you know, if you look after them, they make you happy all the time?”

It makes the kaiako feel a deep sense of pride and gratitude.

Our tamariki have proven themselves to be green‑fingered gardeners and guardians, with a wealth of gardening experience, knowledge, and skills — even at such a young age. The kaiako enjoy the stories they share with us about gardening and the enthusiasm they have for growing flowers and vegetables in their home gardens.

The first step in our sunflower‑growing project was planting the King’s Sunflower Skyscraper seeds into little biodegradable pots filled with seedling mix in August. Each child who wished to grow a sunflower sowed at least two seeds and named their pots. Some children even sowed a seed for every member of their whānau!

The little pots were placed into seedling trays, and the children eagerly waited for the seeds to germinate and for the small green leaves to emerge from the soil. This happened in record time — between 7 and 10 days. Once the seedlings appeared, the small pots were transferred into larger pots, with the children watering them and placing them in direct sunlight during the day. When the sunflower seedlings had developed their true leaves and reached approximately 10–15 cm tall, we prepared the ground for planting.

Some children took many sunflower seedlings home to plant in their gardens over the school holidays. In the first week back, the children planted the now very strong seedlings all around the kindergarten.

Throughout the duration of the competition, everyone regularly checked on each sunflower — watering them, monitoring their growth, and occasionally giving them a feed of fertiliser. As temperatures increased, we increased the watering. The children talked to the sunflowers and encouraged them to grow tall like skyscrapers.
“It’s working, Sarah!” said Magnus.
“You are so beautiful!” Horia would say to the sunflowers.
“I love you, sunflowers!” beamed Nasra with a big smile.

Everyone enjoyed the cheerful golden sunflowers over the final two weeks of Term 4, watching them track the sun throughout the day. We saw birds eating the sunflower seeds, bees collecting nectar, and smiles of happiness on the faces of the children, their parents and whānau, as well as visitors to our kindergarten. We received many positive comments about our sunflowers and well wishes for our entry into the sunflower competition in December.

In March 2026, we received the most unexpected and exciting news after entering one of our last blooming and tallest sunflowers into Dalton’s Late Bloomers Competition in February 2026 – we won the tallest sunflower in the country at 3.15 metres!

We are so happy that Dalton’s will be sending some bags of garden supplies our way to use in our garden. Well done and congratulations to all the tamariki and whānau at Mt Roskill Kindergarten.