Gillian Vine catches up with a multi-talented gardener.
Since childhood, Keri Smith has loved lilies.
As well as true lilies, the Dunedin woman likes day lilies, callas and even the white cannas often written off as weeds, saying "they’re tall and tough".
“And I love my tiger lilies," she adds.
Two years ago, she collected little black bulbils.
She is fascinated with the new pollen-free doubles known as rose lilies and has been delighted with the flowers of Julia, a fine red lily typical of the group.
Lily show rules prohibit showing a fasciated flower, although Keri did enter a photo of it in last month’s Otago Lily Society show.
Overall, the show was a triumph for the retired art teacher, weaver and artist.
Her well-balanced stem of Conca d’Or was adjudged best in show, as was her floret (single bloom) of Solution, a speckled Oriental variety.
"Solution has been my favourite this year. I’m always rationalising things and I like to find the solution, so this lily suits me," she says.
The combination of these and other good results saw Keri winning the premier trophy for most aggregate points in the show, which means that from now on she must enter open classes, not the novice.
"It’s about time I moved up," she says.
Keri started showing six years ago, rushing into the show venue 15 minutes before entries closed.
"I took in two florets and won a trophy," she recalls.
She planned to enter the Dunedin Horticultural Society show this month and is disappointed that it has been cancelled because of Covid-19, as she had some favourite roses and a couple of gladioli earmarked to exhibit.
Her garden is packed, not only with lilies, but numerous other flowers, including roses, dahlias, gladioli and shrubby daisies.
Of these Federation and Grandessa daisies, she says, "In midsummer, the daisies get all yucky, so I cut them back hard and they come away again.
"It’s very easy to take cuttings: just break them off at a joint and put them in a pot."
In the 2015 flood, her house remained dry but the garden was flooded. Later, pansies and chickweed, neither of which had been present before the flood, appeared.
"I’m on top of the chickweed now after all these years," she says.
Flowers are the attention-seekers in the front garden, while at the rear of the 0.47ha section, Keri has added raised vegetable beds, fruit trees and a glasshouse. Together, these produce an astonishing array of edibles, fed by the quantities of compost Keri makes.
Two tamarillos fruit well, producing about 70 fruit a year between them, thanks to tall camellias which provide shelter.
There is a fig, two grapes, Ballerina apples, a plum and tomatoes galore.
"I bought this house seven years ago for the sunroom and the garden," Keri says.
Looking around at what she has done outdoors, one can only applaud her decision.
