This article was published in the Lenoir News-Topic.

Emma Roblees’ yard is a riot of color. Flowers and scattered corn plants flow over every surface, sharing space with lawn ornaments and twisting wind chimes on the porch.

In the middle of it all, there is an enormous stalk of corn.

At roughly 16 feet tall (as measured by a friend of Roblees’) the plant dwarfs its 5-foot-4-inch owner.  For context, the average sweet corn plant is 4.5 to 6 feet tall, according to Caldwell County extension agent Amanda Taylor.

People drive by Roblees’ house on Polaris Drive in Gamewell and crane their necks to get a better look or stop to take pictures, she said. She’ll say hello, ask them if they’re looking for someone – and they tell her no, they’re just looking at the corn.

Roblees says she didn’t do anything special when she planted the corn – just sent up a prayer.

“Every time I open a hole to plant anything, I’ll say, ‘In the name of Jesus, Lord, you do the rest,’” she said.

Friends have since told her that she “must really have faith,” if the corn grew that high.

Roblees said she has no plans to trim the plant down – just as she had no plans for it to grow this tall in the first place.

“I just put it in,” she said. “And it went up and up and up and up.”