Great gladioli gladdens gardener

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 13, Issue 624, 20 February 1996, Page 5

Great gladioli gladdens gardener

By

Michele

Monaghan

When Lesley Sole read about an 11 bloom Gladioli winning an award she couldn't resist telling the Bulletin about her 15-bloom flower. The day of the photo-shoot arrived and in the garden was a Gladioli that will produce an incredible 18 blooms in full flower. Mrs Sole was unsure of name of the flower so if anyone recognises it she would be grateful to hear from them. Lesley and her husband John have what you could describe as 'a bit of a garden fetish'. Their small Waiouru yard is crammed with 230 rose bushes, Godetia of all colours and anything else that has caught the couple' s eye.

Lesley not only grows things in the ground, she grows things in anything she can find. The garden has a flowering toilet, handbasin, wheelbarrow and gumboots. Gnomes, turtles and tyre swans lurk happily in the undergrowth or languish lazily on the lawn, but perhaps the lighting is this garden' s most unusual feature. At night the garden is lit and has become a landmark as 'the house with the lights' . Unfortunately some Waiouru people use the lights for more than directions. For six weeks now the Sole's garden has been tromped on and stolen from. A concrete turtle turned up under someone's house while a missing gnome has not been found. Roses have been pinched and dahlias flattened. Lesley and John had nothing to say about this. "People know how we feel," they said.