School Sweet Pea Clubs

Northern Advocate, 30 November 1939, Page 4

School Sweet Pea Clubs

IT was a very fine conception of the aesthetic value of gardening which led to the formation of sweet pea clubs in Northland. The promoters felt that if the children attending the schools were interested in the growing of sweet peas a very great deal would be done for their cultural development. The soundness of this belief is proved to-day by the extent to which the sweet pea club movement has grown. In all schools, from the far north to Wellsford, and even Helensville, in the south, annual shows have been held during the past week or two. The exhibitions have been-remarkable in many cases. Beautiful blooms grown by children have delighted the ladies who have willingly given of their time and ability as judges to help forward a work that is undoubtedly of national value.

The operations of the year are to be brought to ‘a culmination to-morrow, when Whangar.ei is again to be made the rallying ground of all schools in Northland, which will display the cream of the exhibits that have figured at the shows held in the schools themselves.

The show will not only provide a medium for the schools to demonstrate the high standard of efficiency reached in the cultivation of sweet peas, but it will provide an opportunity for children to show their artistic ability by arranging the exhibits in some of the sections. This is in keeping with the practice of the judges at the school shows, who have instructed the children in the art of posy-making and other forms of decorative art, and then given their pupils an opportunity to try their own skill in these matters. The results have been surprisingly good, and must inevitably have a marked effect upon the children in their later years. The success that has attended the sweet pea club movement naturally gives pleasure to the “Advocate,” which co-operated in launching the movement, and, among other things, provided free fertiliser to schoolchildren who joined the school clubs. We hope the public will manifest interest in the crowning of this year’s operations, and that the sweet-pea clubs will continue to grow and prosper.