Floral art sings for Daffodil Day

September 4th, 2013
[Review and photos by Val Armstrong]

About 150 people attended the annual Floral Art theatre show, "Let the Flowers Sing", at the Memorial Hall yesterday afternoon in honour of Daffodil Day, with profits donated to the Cancer Society.

It was 45 years since the first meeting of the Floral Art Group was formed and still there are 3 founding members present - Shirley Frater, Joan Mitten and Donelda Hutchison.

Shirley opened the working displays, the theme for her arrangement being Pavlova. You can imagine the white fluffy arrangement with all the containers from the Edmonds mix for making pavlova.

She filled them all with daffodils, and they were hanging on a fence-like arrangement that she had decorated with a mixture of lux flakes and hot water and sealed it all around the edges, giving a fluffy like look that of a pavlova. She also added greenery and more flowers.

Jan Holt, who called herself the Stick Lady, prefers to use wood from sticks and bark. She used an amazing, very tall piece of wood which had an almost sculptured look already. She turned it into a work of art, draping it with flax and using a bunch of daffodils at the base.

Her other arrangement was a very orderly selection of sticks made into large cone shapes, which she draped with garlands of foliage and flowers. A very effective and beautiful arrangment.

Barbara Higgins from Blenheim made an unusual bouquet of flowers on a back board using reds and greens. To this attractive arrangement she added another of the same theme in an almost see-through theme - quite the opposite look. They looked beautiful together.

The popular folk group Jiggery Folkery - guitarist Paul Bond and his violinist and accordionist - sang fantastic songs and brought a lot of fun to the show.

Pam Canton was hiding at the back behind the singers, and made a beautiful display with orange and green but ran off before she could receive her applause. In fact Jiggery Folkery thought they were being clapped off the stage and that we the audience had had enough of them. Pam didn't tell us what her theme was or what she was doing during her arrangement.

Guest demonstrator Rosanne Armstrong as usual entertained with her blunt and comical way of chatting during her performance and had the crowd in laughter at her stories. Her arrangement was called the Rhythm of Life.

It was a nice surprise when two professional dancers did a beautiful item of ballroom dancing. Dressed in white, the female dancer Zara Gillespie represented the Pavlova that Shirley had created, and she was ably partnered by Jarrod Neame. They also performed again during the show, much to the audience's delight.

Mark Wentworth ably assisted with sound and stage lighting and as usual did a spendid job.

The Cancer Society ladies from Nelson gave a big thank you to Shirley Frater and the team for the amazing show and thanked everyone for all the donations from Daffodil day and the show. About $3700 was raised from the show and they commented on a wonderful effort.

Dispalys of floral wares were on display and also for sale. Here are some photos from the event.

Photo by Tara Forde

by Pam Canton	by Jan Holt
by Barbara Higgins	by Jan Holt
by Jan Holt	by Shirley Frater

by Rosanne Armstrong

Dancers Zara Gillespie and Jarrod Neame

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