FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) — When Alex Babich, 47, stood in his backyard in Fort Wayne, Indiana, craning his neck to look 35 feet into the sky, he wasn’t just staring at a sunflower. He was looking at his roots — and his future legacy.

The flower, nicknamed “Clover” and confirmed Wednesday by Guinness World Records as the tallest sunflower ever measured, stretches as high as a telephone pole.

Babich, born and raised in Ukraine, immigrated to the U.S. at age 14 in 1991 after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Seven years ago, he started growing sunflowers as a symbol of his love for his home country.

“Sunflowers are the national flower of Ukraine, so it’s special to me,” he said.

Babich’s first sunflower was 13 feet tall, then 15, then 19. Quickly, he began asking himself, “How far can we take

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