Gillian Vine gets a rosy glow.
Tomorrow, the Otago Rose Society wraps up a year of celebrating its 75th anniversary with its annual show. It’s not the group’s 75th but 73rd, as the ORS didn’t hold its first official show until 1952.
There’s still time to show your roses: if you want to try your luck, entering them is free, so take them to St Peter’s Church Hall, Hillside Rd, Dunedin, today between 3pm and 7pm or tomorrow morning from 8am to 10am. ORS members will be on hand to help, so don’t be shy to give it a go.
The show is open from 1pm to 5pm tomorrow. Admission for adults is $5, which includes afternoon tea. Children and ORS members get in free. There will be raffles, New Zealand Rose Society calendars and a sales table of roses, plants and cut flowers.
For those scratching their heads over the name of a rose, there is an identification service, so take along your mystery bloom to learn its name.
November until early December are the peak times for exhibiting roses, so shows come thick and fast during this time.
The 2024 season really kicked off with the New Zealand Rose Society’s National Show in Pukekohe on November 16-17. It was too far away for southerners to compete and entries from Waikato north dominated the competition.
Northland Rose Society member Janice Walker was a winner with her array of pastel roses arranged in a glass vase.
Ms Chalmers said: "A special well done to Archer Bullen for his display in the children’s section. His [roses and Lego] display was highly imaginative and definitely worthy of his first national prize."
There was a bumper show lineup in the South last weekend with Christchurch, Timaru and the North Otago Rose Society all staging their annual events.
ORS president Dave Cannan judged at the Oamaru show and commented that "they grow very good roses in North Otago".
From Thursday to Sunday, Cromwell hosted Heritage Roses New Zealand’s three-day conference, the first post-Covid. It was preceded and followed by visits to old-rose collections from Invercargill to Dunedin, including the Northern Cemetery’s lineup.
Convener Tony Lawrence said the event brought together almost 130 old-rose enthusiasts, including an American, an Englishman and 16 Australians.
"The turnout was fantastic," Mr Lawrence said.
The speakers were "exceptionally good" and the weather was perfect.
Murray Radka has what is believed to be the world’s largest collection of old roses, some 2000 of them, at Brandy Hill near Cromwell.
"Martin Stott, from England, came especially to see Murray’s roses," Mr Lawrence said.
Because Cromwell has no public transport, St John member Roger Dodds went the extra mile — quite a lot of them in fact — driving around those without cars. He refused payment, so the conference made a $500 donation to St John, in recognition of Mr Dodds’ service.
He and his tiny team of "outstanding" workers were delighted with
how well the event went.
"I was pretty happy," he said.
