Roses are garden favourites of Margaret Edgar
It's taken "mainlander" Margaret Edgar some time to adjust to gardening in Taranaki, but the award- winning flower grower reckons she's got the knack of it now.
Replanting herself from South to North for family connections - well that's a mixed story, one fraught with a few rolling "arrrs" and pangs of sadness. But there are also the joys of being near loved ones, especially her grandchildren.
"My last home was in Wanaka and the roses were like bushes. They were just massive, because of the cold weather. But here it took me a long time to adjust - I think it was the salt air," she says.
"I couldn't get over how reserved North Island people were. They never spoke. I was really homesick."
The woman who grew up on a farm at Tapanui in west Otago moved to Taranaki in 2005 to be near family and her roots are clear the moment she speaks.
"Even my daughter said 'I didn't realise what an 'arrr' you had." Sitting under a garden umbrella on Monday afternoon, Margaret is apologetic about the colourful plot on Doone St, named the best flower garden in the latest New Plymouth District Council housing-for-the-elderly garden competition.









@ GOOD MORNiNG to my YELLOW ROSES too!! i just couldnt say its 9:67… lol.
My fav yellow and pink roses from the flower market to kick-off the weekend
Yellow Roses and the cutest little monkey
dwskittle1992 girl i was serious though lol. And all i'm seeing are red roses. Why not yellow?! LikeYLgo