Sunflowers a winner with Coast community

Anyone passing Rod Dennis’ home in Milton Road, Ōrewa will have admired his row of giant sunflowers this summer. 

The 92-year-old has been growing them in the same place ever since he retired – but this year, for the first time, they were prize-winners.

Twenty years ago, Rod had a stroke and now has Aphasia, so finds communication difficult.

His son, John, says Rod purposely grows the sunflowers where they can be seen by people walking past.

“He enjoys pottering in the garden, taking it slowly. In 2021 we had to move my mum Elaine into a care home, so now seeing people stop to admire the sunflowers, and have a chat, is even more special for him,” John says. “Learning to live on your own at 90 has been a real challenge. He finds gardening very therapeutic, especially through all the lockdowns when he was not allowed to visit Elaine.”

Although John helps in the garden, Rod did nearly all of the nurturing of his beloved sunflowers again this year.

“Dad even turned over most of the sod using a spade. He mixed his fertiliser brew and planted the seeds himself. Over the months since the seeds were planted, Dad has regularly cared for his sunflowers. Most days he could be seen weeding the plot, watering the plants and tying them up to stakes while he could still reach them from the ground.”

Around 12 of them were in full flower just before Christmas.

In Spring, Matt Gilmore of Harcourts Ōrewa ran his sunflower competition, for the second time. It offers a prize for the tallest sunflower grown by February 1.

As it happens, Rod grows a super tall variety, called Sunflower Ginormous FlowerZilla, so John entered him in the competition.

Rod’s tallest sunflower, at 2.7m, left the rest for dust and Matt also loved the story about the effort involved in keeping the display of sunflowers going.

Rod won a ‘celebration box’ full of treats

John says Rod was chuffed to win but the main thing is that it makes his day to see people enjoying what he has grown.