Wairarapa’s locally owned community newspaper
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2022
INSIDE: The show must go on P3
P6
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It’s a blooming good show Erin Kavanagh-Hall
erin.kavanagh-hall@age.co.nz
From watching her local mayor attend to his champion flowers to bringing home bags full of her own national trophies – you could say it’s been a “blooming” successful journey for Antoinette Lambert and her prizewinning dahlias. Lambert, from Eketahuna, competed at this year’s North Island National Dahlia Show, held in Taranaki last month, walking away with a total of seven awards. At the show, hosted by the Hawera Dahlia Society, Lambert and won the title of “Champion Vase” in multiple categories: including in the Pompom, Medium Decorative, Miniature Ball, and Fimbriated Dahlia classes. She also had four of her competition vases make the judges’ “Top Table” – the finalists for the supreme “Champion Bloom” award. Lambert, who has been gardening since her early twenties (which she confesses makes her “a
late starter” amongst the gardening community), was first introduced to dahlias while living across the road from Woodville district mayor Ralph Mountford, himself a competitive grower. “That was back in the 80s. He’d been out in his garden, pruning his dahlias, and I’d pop over and pick up all his spent blooms for him,” she recalled. “I decided to give dahlias a go and set aside a little patch in my garden.” Before too long, Lambert had hit the competitive circuit – going on to exhibit at flower shows throughout the country, gaining numerous accolades for her colourful, precisely shaped blooms. She was particularly chuffed to win the overall “Champion Bloom” award at the 2012 North Island championships, held in Napier. She has also won several champion vases at the Woodville Horticultural Show, where she normally enters flowers in multiple classes, as well as dahlias. Lambert said her latest
awards are particularly gratifying, as the national contests attract “the best of the best”. “It’s pretty cool – especially as you’re up against some serious competition,” she said. “You get some seriously good growers at the national shows. You don’t compete unless you’re competitive – and I’m a pretty competitive person! “I’ve put a lot of hard work into growing dahlias over the years - and it’s great to have that work validated.” After having gained valuable advice on dahlia cultivation from mayor Mountford, Lambert sourced “about half a dozen” plants, which, on relocating to Ashhurst, she added to her new garden space. It wasn’t long before she “caught the bug”. “I started out with a few plants, and thought they looked really nice. Then I ended up with 50. And then 150. “You can never get enough of dahlias. Continued on page 4
Antoinette Lambert with some of her exhibition-standard dahlias in her Nireaha Road Garden. PHOTO/ ERIN KAVANAGH-HALL
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