Games featured in the flowers

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33447, 31 January 1974, Page 16

Games featured in the flowers

A flower show at this time of this year which did not take into account the Commonwealth Games would be remarkable. Evidence of the Games was at the Canterbury Horticultural Society’s gladiolus show yesterday in reds, whites and blues, and arrangements depicting sports events and the presence of royalty.

This year the society combined with the national Gladiolus - Council’s show, boosting the entries from 534 last year to 659. Nineteen entries were from the North Island. The most arresting stand featured the nine different sports in the Games in the symbolic colours. Wrestling came out very well in twisted wood; cycling, in flax fastened into circular forms, against a backdrop of a wheel; weight-lifting in gold balances; swimming, in a cool blue and white arrangement of agapanthus on cellophane; running, in a tall, streaky creation that suggested speed. Some of the others were badminton, which was a bouncy pink carnation arrangement, topped with shuttles; and bowling, cleverly using the tight round zinnia flowers against a green backdrop of aspidistra—like the ball on the green. “The Ties That Bind Us,” the name of an arrangement in the abstract display by the C.H.S. panel of judges was a tufty arrangement of red, white and blue, finished at the base by a swirl of different coloured stands of rope. The most outstanding modern arrangement looked at the barriers that divide men; three isolated shaster daisies broken by a twist of clematis vine which looked remarkably like a strand of barbed wire. A special section of native flora showed about 30 different varieties; and a shady native corner in the foyer displayed examples of Maori cane work. The champion bloom of the show was Strathnaver, a

straight-spiked unblemished white gladiolus, not quite two-thirds open, entered by Miss P. Taylor. Minesota Rose, a rose pink vase of three stems, flecked with powdered cream was the premier in the large open section. It was entered by T. A. Lowe. A. S. Duffield won three premiers—the small and medium amateur seedling classes, and the medium open. Premier in the open class was Kareka, entered by R. Williams. Winners of special awards were: the Gladiolus Silver medal, Mrs E. E. Taylor; the C.H.S. silver medal, L. Franks, for a display of floral and Olympic stamps; and the C.H.S. bronze medal to the Canterbury Gladiolus Society.