Otago's 2008 Gardener of the Year Midge Ruka was a late starter, she tells Gillian Vine.
Gardening runs in Midge Ruka's family, but she says she was not interested until she reached her 40s.
"It's in the blood but it's taken a long to come out in me," she says.
Recognition of her work for various groups, notably as president of the Dunedin Garden Club, where she persuaded members to strip for the club's Calendula Girls calendar, led her being named 2008 Otago Gardener of the Year, something she says was a big surprise.
One of six children - four of whom now garden despite ignoring it as youngsters - Midge said she started in Green Island with nothing except some large trees and a tiny bit of garden.
"Then one day I thought, 'This house needs a garden', and the day I thought that, I got started."
She has not looked back and now she and her partner, Dennis, have a delightful small garden thickly planted with old roses - Midge is on the executive of Heritage Roses New Zealand - irises, clematis and numerous perennials.
Even so, the couple have found space for a raised vegetable bed, made by Dennis, and it has been so successful they are planning another.
Flower colours are generally soft - pinks, mauves and blues - "but I'm not precious about it", Midge says.
Restraint has been necessary because the house is a large, old villa on a 0.1ha section so the garden is not spacious.
"If I had a bigger area, I'd have a nice, bright patch. I do like the brights."
Despite having lots packed in, ensuring a succession of flowers, there is no impression of crowding.
"It looks good when it all comes up and things mingle," Midge says.
The garden is sheltered from winds but suffers from very hard frosts in winter, so plants need to be tough.
The Rukas have about 50 clematis, from specimens with tiny, bell-like flowers to bold, flat-faced double varieties, mostly in shades of blue and purple.
"I've a great passion for clematis," Midge says.
She loves roses, too, and has some 200 of them, mainly heritage types, and numerous irises, including a near-black bearded variety positioned by a path so its bloom cannot be missed.
Because Midge has a full-time job and is preparing for the Dunedin Gardening Club's 90th jubilee celebrations in March, the garden has to be fairly low-maintenance.
"It's not a tidy, prissy garden. It has to look after itself and I just come along and intervene," she says.
