MEASURE OF A PLANT

The twin idiocies of fashion and competition that caused bicolour sweetpeas to almost disappear (November 2018) were on display at a spring flower show recently. The daffodils were utterly beautiful and truly lifted my spirit. Then I encountered a woman, presumably a judge, complete with acolyte and clipboard. She had a little ruler with which she was measuring the petals of these beautiful flowers. It almost sucked all the joy out of the occasion, until the sheer ludicrousness of it made me laugh.

These desperate attempts to manipulate living things to conform to a set of arbitrary standards have given us carnations without fragrance, and worse, dogs so deformed and horses so frail that they cannot live out their natural lives comfortably. Bronwyn Emson, AUCKLAND