You have to wonder what the founders of the Dunedin Gardening Club would think of how the present members are raising dosh for the club's 90th birthday celebrations in March.
"It's very tasteful," Dunedin Gardening Club president Midge Ruka says reassuringly.
She is referring to Calendula Girls, the calendar the club has just released.
Members stripped to pose in their gardens and the result is a month-by-month look at just how far some women - and a few men - will go to help fund-raise.
The theme, naturally, is gardening, so the unclothed club members peer out from behind flowers, vegetables and in the case of the three tea ladies, large teapots.
"Our photographer, Kirsty Irvine, was absolutely fantastic," Mrs Ruka says.
"She was very conservative [in the poses], had a sense of humour and was absolutely wonderful."
Mrs Ruka, Otago Gardener of the Year 2008, dreamed up the calendar idea. As the January girl, she posed wearing a flower-bedecked hat and an apron.
Club treasurer Jennifer Evans' photo appears in February and secretary Chris James is March, bravely sitting naked among some thorny roses.
"I had to get my sister and her friend to hold up a blanket so I couldn't be seen from the street," Mrs Ruka says.
The club has regular (clothed) outings, so the cover photo shows a topless driver behind the wheel of a coach with the Calendula girls seated behind him.
"We had a lot of fun doing the calendar and a lot of laughs," Mrs Ruka says.
Although the calendar would have been scandalous in 1919 when the Dunedin Gardening Club was formed, some things have not changed.
The club still meets on the second Tuesday of each month, has speakers on different topics, plant sales and raffles.
An event from days gone by, an October flower show, was revived in 2004 as someone found club cups and the committee decided to use them again.
The engraving on the trophies reveals a little of the club's history.
Dunedin Gardening Club archivist Angela Whitehead is disappointed at how few records have survived, with nothing at all from the 1930s to mid-1970s, but she hopes some may yet be discovered in time for the 90th anniversary celebrations.
