Gunnedah's green thumb Julia Withers scooped the pool at the Gunnedah Show Ladies Auxiliary's annual rose show.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Mrs Withers won champion rose and eight out of 13 categories on the weekend with her 27 entries. She also received six second places.
This year's 137 entries were judged by florist Judy Clark who decided Mrs Wither's red rose was the pick of the bunch.
Read also:
Mrs Wither's said the rose was cut from a plant gifted to her by her children when she and her husband moved to Gunnedah about 20 years ago. She thinks it is a Mr Lincoln, a hybrid tea rose cultivar.
Another of her award-winning roses - Black Caviar - has been in her possession for only a month. She received it as a prize for winning the Judy Noble Shield at the Gunnedah Presbyterian Church rose show in September.
Mrs Withers said she had 80 rose bushes and has been caring for roses "pretty well all my life" but it became a passion about 20 years ago.
"Mu mum loved gardening," she said.
She is drawn to roses because of the perfume and the "easy care".
Mrs Withers' top tips are pot ash and sea salt, and "a really deep water once a week".
While the drought hasn't been an issue for her roses, the hot, dry winds have wreaked havoc and ruined some blooms she had planned to enter in the weekend rose show.
"The wind is the biggest thing ... it burns the flowers badly," she said.
Results
- Champion Rose: Julia Withers
- White rose: Julia Withers 1 and 2
- Bi-Colour: Julia Withers 1 and 2
- Pink: Julia Withers 1, village homes 2
- Red: Julia Withers 1 and 2
- Orange: Alkira 1, village homes 2
- Double Delight: Julia Withers 1 and 2
- Mauve: Jean Ford 1, CWA 2
- Yellow: Julia Withers 1, Del Horwood 2
- Peace: Alkira 1, Julia Withers 2
- Miniature: Jean Ford 1, Alkira 2
- Colour not mentioned: Julia Withers 1, Alkira 2
- Floribunda: Heather Sills 1, Olwyn Jones 2
- Vase of roses: Julia Withers 1 and 2