Children from St Albans are being challenged by a national charity to grow the ‘fattest sunflower face’.

bibic, which helps children and young people with conditions affecting their social, communication and learning abilities, has organised the growing competition as part of their Smile Campaign.

Geoff Cummins, Chief Executive for bibic, said: "As part of our Smile Campaign, which aims to raise awareness of our Sponsor a UK Child initiative, we are running a competition for children aged up to 16-years-old to grow one of the smiliest plants around, the sunflower.

"The aim of the competition is to grow the sunflower with the fattest face and the seeds youngsters will use have been bred especially to have large flower ‘heads’.

"We know that many schools have gardening clubs and we would love it if they could get involved too. As well as entering our competition they could have their own in-house one too."

The competition is also a fundraiser for bibic through a £1 donation, which people will be asked to make when they order their seeds. bibc have joined with online garden centre Potter and Rest, who have donated 100 packets of the special sunflower seeds.

Residents can order a packet of seeds for £1 by visiting http://bit.ly/1gyVsGO.