Carterton Rose Society is holding its annual rose show this month at the old post office building in Carterton and everyone is invited to share their blooms.
“A lot of people don’t realise that they can actually just come along. They think they have to be a member – you don’t,” the society’s secretary Vivienne Hawken said.
“It’s open to everyone who’s got roses.
“Last year, the lady who walked away with many, many first prizes wasn’t a member – and she has since joined.”
Doors open to the public on Friday, November 17 at 12pm and visitors to the two-day show can expect to see [and smell] hundreds of blooms exhibited in 32 classes within four categories.
Classes include a vase of roses, a bowl of garden flowers, as well as single stems, with specific classes available for those new to exhibiting.
The rose show is an important occasion in the Carterton society’s calendar, Hawken said.
“The aim [of the show] is two-fold. One is to get community input and interest and maybe get some more members. And two, to show off just how beautiful roses are and what people have in their garden.”
Hawken’s great-grandfather, Walter Easlea, was a prominent rose grower and breeder in England.
She has two of his roses in her garden, a climber called Easlea’s Golden Rambler and Thelma, named after Hawken’s mother and which “grows along our back fence”.
Hawken doesn’t consider she inherited Easlea’s talent for rose-growing but will be exhibiting in this year’s show.
“I will try and attempt to get some. I’ve got a few roses here, but I’m not a very good rose gardener, not like Graeme [Renall] – he’s got masses.”
Graeme Renall, Carterton Rose Society president, has been a club member since the 1950s and “does something that most people don’t do”, Hawken said. “He grows from rose hips”, which can lead to surprising outcomes.
“You don’t get the rose that you have taken [the hips] from because the bees have pollinated and created something different,” Hawken explained.
Hawken loves the beauty of roses, “especially the old heritage roses, like the David Austin roses, the beautiful big, puffy ones. And scented ones. And the floribundas – the ones that open out and have that lovely symmetrical feel about them.”
The club meets on the third Monday of every month at 1.30pm and new members are always welcome.
- The Carterton Rose show is open Friday, November 17 at 12pm–4pm and Saturday, November 18, 10am–3pm. For those interested in exhibiting, contact Graeme Renall 06 379 7065 or show secretary Linda Campbell 021 189 9347.
