Hydrangea gardener Gerry Boyle is giving away the blooms
from his massive flower garden at Blanket Bay, beside State
Highway 88, to "anyone who wants them". Photo by Stephen
Jaquiery.
A blooming giveaway from a Blanket Bay garden where
hydrangea fans can help themselves to free flowers has had a
fantastic response, grower Gerry Boyle says.
Mr Boyle planted out his Blanket Bay garden with hydrangeas
10 years ago and now gives away the blooms during the annual
flowering season in January and February.
"They're pretty spectacular at the moment. I've got the
operation down to a fine art," he says, of his harvesting
method.
Mr Boyle gives people a pair of garden "snippers" and
provides a brief lesson in how to "keep the clip nice and
tidy" for when they collect their hydrangeas.
"They just throw the snippers over the fence from there and I
get them ready for the next person," he said.
Mr Boyle planted 4945 hydrangeas on the 0.1ha property at
Blanket Bay, about 8km from Dunedin, in 2002 as part of a
fundraising venture when he was manager of the Otago Salmon
Hatchery Trust facility in Sawyers Bay.
He said he was surprised at the numbers of Australian
visitors this year, who had stopped to take advantage of the
flowering bonanza.
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