More vegetables, fewer flowers, impressive floral art, the first school entry, excellent sculpture and a massive photographic section were some of the impressions of this year's Ellerslie International Flower Show in Christchurch this week.
The judges awarded gold to eight gardens, with their supreme award, plus the top award for design, going to Revolutionising Reuse, by Rebecca Hammond and Grant Stephens, of H and S Design, Christchurch.
The supreme awards were almost no contest, as Ben Hoyle's A French Kiss in Akaroa was the only other show garden that came close to Hammond and Stephens' effort.
Revolutionising Reuse ticked all the boxes: superb design, clever reuse of materials ranging from old kitchen drawers and a piano to pallets and wine bottles, with lots of rusty iron to link the elements.
To the delight of children from Raumati South Primary School, on the Kapiti Coast, their attractive show garden won silver. It looked rather like many school gardens with the emphasis on using what was to hand to make a sustainable patch.
In the Hort Galore pavilion, a well-deserved gold went to the New Zealand Alpine Society, which staged immaculate potted plants in picture frames.
In the same area, a bonsai ''show within a show'' had an impressive line-up of mini-trees, with Australian judge Don Deluca saying there were such ''exceptionally good trees'' that ''it was really difficult to pick an overall winner''.
The Zealandia national flowerbed competition was won by Auckland, but I confess I preferred Ashburton's Harness Jewels (silver) and Otorohanga's silver-distinction Buzzy Bee, complete with turning wings.
After last year's superb line-up of student entries in the Emerging Designers section, this year's gardens were significantly less innovative. The design by overall winner Bayley LuuTomes, a Wellington Open Polytechnic student, fell far short of the standard set by last year's winner, Rachael Matthews.
The floral art was up to the expected high standard, with some outstanding exhibits, although one judge, Barry Ferguson, of Auckland, commented that many entries emphasised art and had too few flowers.
He described The Mail Must Go Through from the North Otago Floral Art Group as ''wonderful''. It scored silver distinction - that means within five points of gold - while in the individual floral art, Marion Partridge, also of North Otago, won a merit award.
And, as always, there was plenty to encourage show-goers to reach for their wallets, from the stainless-steel peacocks, sunflowers and small birds Forged and Crafted, of Roxburgh, took to Ellerslie to smaller items like seeds, onion bags, knives and garden kneelers.
The Ellerslie International Flower Show runs until Sunday.
