BLOOM OF YOUTH
Actress Nomzamo Mbatha celebrates spring with a bouquet of the roses that have been named after her. The flower was unveiled on Friday.
● Everything keeps coming up roses for Nomzamo Mbatha. The actresscum-activist now has a pink-meetssoft-peach flower named after her.
The honour was bestowed on Friday morning at Ludwig’s Rose Farm, north of Pretoria, as part of the flower company’s annual spring festival.
We were proffered flutes of Veuve Clicquot as we made our way inside the pretty-as-a-posy rose shed decorated in floral finery.
“Wow, what a full-circle moment,” exclaimed the perky actress as she greeted Ludwig Taschner, the man behind the rose nursery.
Taschner’s daughter, Anja Taschner, who recently qualified with a BCom degree from the University of Cape Town, created the Nomzamo cultivar earlier this year.
The roses were on display in a bed of Nomzamo blooms, with a fallen chandelier, a pair of white gloves and a jacket artfully displayed as part of the setting.
Then it’s greeting the country’s most famous green fingers, Keith Kirsten, who earlier this year unveiled the Nelson Mandela rose. Those with long memories will know he also created the Gwen Gill rose.
Keith tells me he’s been up to his elbows in gardening projects, ranging from Sol Kerzner’s spot in Hout Bay to Christo Wiese’s Lourensford Estate in Somerset West.
His next project is set to be the redesign of the gardens for another wine estate, Boschendal, in Franschhoek.
Other guests on the sweetsmelling morning out included Nomzamo’s mom, Phumzile Mbatha, her aunt Ntombi Pereira, media personality Penny Lebyane and PR gal about town Melanie Ramjee.
Keith tells me he’s been up to his elbows in gardening projects