What are these monstrosities I planted?

[uthredswife]

I would greatly appreciate some help from you learned folk. I planted these as bulbs but don't have a clue what they are. Some are over 5.5ft high. They haven't flowered yet and are seriously crowding my lovely gladiolas . The stalk are slightly fuzzy and at least an inch thick on some of them.

Thank you in advance for any suggestions!

they look like sunflowers to me

Gosh I think you might be right. I would have thought theyd have flowered by now though? I have no recollection at all of planting sunflowers.as you can see I seriously over planted that flower bed. In my defense it is my first year having my own garden and I had no idea how things would grow in the soil/light. I wonder should i cull them....

Noo! That looks splendid! You can't execute them without seeing what they are!

Put some stakes at the back and tie them back then you will be able to see the other flowers better. They will look lovely when they flower.

yes sunflowers.
ours are well over 2m. the tallest 2.7m (measured today)

sunflowers come from seeds, not bulbs.
birdseed?

Sunflowers. Ours grew wild this year from bird seed we reckon!

Yep they could definitely have been planted from seeds. My daughters were given various packs so seeds by my mother and they planted them all.over the place. It's actually very gratifying that I can grow things. When we bought this garden it was 10 feet high with weeds (literally) and a back wall covered with barbed wire and glass. It's a north facing garden and i was very pessimistic about the likelihood of anything growing but everything I have planted has grown really well. Though we are not the facing we are not overlooked for either sides or back so we get much more sun than I had thought. The gladiolas are staked but are desperately craning for some sun through the sunflowers. The colours of the gladiolas are beautiful and I dont thing they can be seen properly as is it. Next year I will be a bit more circumspect with what I plant!

your garden does look lovely :)

Thank you yellow

If you have space, make the border much wider, and maybe give it a graceful curve, but perhaps you won't have room for that?

Thanks Ferguson. Actually I do have space! Lots of it. The flower bed in the picture is mirrored on the other side if the garden. The back wall is being demolished soon and we are going to extend our garden by about 70sq m as the council are regulating our boundary. So I may do as you suggest next summer once the wall is rebuilt