Dunedin Returned and Services' Association Welfare Trust administration manager Sally Turner said volunteers would spend this morning wrapping posies of rosemary - the herb that symbolises remembrance - in red paper, signifying the poppy.
She said the smell of rosemary also conjured images of hot roast lamb, and no doubt many helpers would be hankering for such a meal by the time they had finished making more than 4000 posies.
The posies would be made at HMNZS Toroa, in St Andrew St, Dunedin, between 9am and noon today, and Mrs Turner hoped as many volunteers as possible would turn up to help. This was the second year posies had been made with rosemary, she said.
In previous years, they were made from flowers and included a sprig of rosemary, but flowers had been abandoned because they were becoming difficult to get and did not last as long.
The posies would be placed on graves in the services section of the Andersons Bay Cemetery and Green Park Cemetery tomorrow morning.