The Hunt for Sunzilla happens Sept. 11 at Rusty Parker Park

September 1, 2025 | By John Malter 

The 32nd annual Waterbury Rotary sunflower-growing contest known as The Hunt for Sunzilla, The Monster Sunflower, will be held on Thursday, Sept. 11, at 5 p.m. at Rusty Parker Memorial Park in Waterbury. 

Art for The Hunt for Sunzilla 2025 by Bette Ann Libby. Courtesy photo

All are invited to bring your amazing sunflowers and cheer on the many contestants for this annual event.

This year’s contest started on Arbor Day, the first Friday in May, when Waterbury Rotarians provided trees for Brookside Primary School, Crossett Brook Middle School and Moretown Elementary School, which the students helped to plant as part of the celebration. Information about Arbor Day was also shared with the students. 

Following the celebration, the students were provided with packets of giant sunflower seeds to plant. Additional seed packets were also distributed to businesses around the Waterbury area to share. 

Approximately 20,000 seeds are distributed for this event annually and since the first contest, more than 500,000 sunflower seeds have been shared with participants. 

For the contest, sunflowers are judged to determine the heaviest sunflower head, the largest-diameter sunflower head, and the tallest sunflower, which is dubbed “Sunzilla the Monster Sunflower.”

There have been winning sunflowers over 16 feet tall, sunflower heads over 24 inches in diameter, and weighing over 6 pounds. 

Prizes include bird feeders, bird houses and sunflower seeds. In addition to the Waterbury Rotary Club, other contest sponsors include Evergreen Gardens, Goldenrod Design and Waterbury True Value Hardware. For this year’s event, Bette Ann Libby has created a special banner for our contest (see photo). 

And, as always, the corollary contest in conjunction with Sunzilla is The Search for the Other Green Monster: the longest and the heaviest zucchinis. To date, the record-holder for this event was a 54-pound zuke. 

In addition to the Sunzilla and zucchini judging, Rotary organizers also hold an almost-Olympic athletic event for kids age 12 and younger: the annual sunflower seed-spitting contest for both distance and accuracy. 

No advance registration is required for any of the events. All participants are asked to arrive with their entries at Rusty Parker Park by 5 p.m. on Sept. 11. 

For more information, contact John Malter at 802-244-7373.

Waterbury Rotarian John Malter is a longtime organizer of the annual Sunzilla and Arbor Day events.