SUMMER HAS sprung a sunflower surprise for Angus teenager Daryl Beech (pictured).

The Kirriemuir 15-year-old took a seed from the bottom of his pet cockatiel’s cage and planted it in a local graveyard, but gave the plant up for dead when it seemed to wilt after an early flourish.

Having almost forgotten about his sunflower, Daryl got a shock when he went back to check the specimen a few days ago and discovered its powers of recovery had stretched to creating a bloom with 10 heads.

“I took the sunflower seed from the bottom of the cage which my cockatiel, Agnes, is kept in and put it in a yoghurt pot but it quickly outgrew that,” said Daryl, of Bank Street.

“I then asked for permission to plant it in the graveyard of the Old Parish Church and it was doing quite well, but then I took the head off it after it had flowered and just left it.

“I was also away on holiday and my friend was in hospital so didn’t go down to water it, but when I went back at the weekend there it was, up against the wall and it has 10 heads on it,” he said.