Longer, stronger blooms for Daffodil Day

Kaiko¯ ura and then up to Blenheim – a 101⁄2-hour round trip, and they arrived early [Wednesday] morning,’’ Spencer said.

Spencer said volunteers from the Rotary Blenheim South Club had also been out and about collecting daffodils around Marlborough.

Rotary club members Henny Vervaart and Greta Firth arrived with 40 buckets full of flowers. They said they had been collecting daffodils from around the region for the annual appeal for the past 16 years.

‘‘We collect a lot of them from private gardens all over Marlborough. A lot of people plant them just for the Cancer Society, and are very generous in what they donate. The best bit about it is getting the chance to go out and see all the wonderful private country gardens in the area,’’ Firth said.

Back at HQ, students from Marlborough Boys’ College were helping out on the production line, making bouquets ready to be shipped out.

Year 9 student Wyatt Darrell said he volunteered for personal reasons. ‘‘I’ve had family members who have had cancer in the past, so I wanted to do something to help out.’’

At the other end of the production line was retiree Margaret Mitchell, who said she had been helping out with Daffodil Day for at least 20 years, and quite enjoyed the work.

‘‘It’s quite refreshing working with flowers. There are worse things you can do around the community,’’ Mitchell said.

There were fears that the recent spell of extreme weather could have devastated this year’s daffodil crops. But, instead, the stems of many daffodils seemed to be longer and thicker this year.

Volunteer buncher Marianne Cleland had a theory. ‘‘Because they haven’t been picked for a couple of years, all the nutrients would have stayed in the soil, so they’ve come back stronger this year,’’ she said.

The Cancer Society’s Hilary Gill said the volunteers aimed to arrange around 400 bundles before the Daffodil Day Appeal today.