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The annual Rose and Flower Show will celebrate 101 years of gardening excellence when it is held at the Warkworth Town Hall on November 11.
The show was founded in 1921, and taken over by the Warkworth Garden Club in 1998, under the guidance of Fay Illingworth and Lorraine Hatfull.
A centenary show was planned for last year, but had to be cancelled due to the Covid lockdown.
Fay Illingworth and Norma Miller will officially open this year’s show, which will be open to the public from noon to 5pm.
There is a new category for dried flower arrangements this year, as well as a return of the popular children’s category. There will also be plant sales and raffles.
However, the annual “best street” competition, which judges all the gardens on a street collectively, is not being held this year.
Perennial entrant Di Jensen is set to dazzle judges with her famed roses again this year. Di has entered every show for more than a decade.
She has lost count of how many awards she has won, but has averaged two to three for the last eight years, including the coveted Campbell D’Arcy Cup and Best in Show.
Di says the secret to growing a good rose is in the topsoil. The hard clay in the Mahurangi area makes for a poor growing medium, so Di uses seaweed she finds washed up on Snells Beach, as well as horse and sheep manure, to build up her garden soil.
Beyond that, she recommends using a gentle spray made from copper and oil. Di says roses thrive in the cold and are best grown before the summer comes into full heat.
The competition usually attracts around 300 entries. Admission is $2 or free for children under 16.
