As visitors to the Hawke's Bay Floral Art competition show in Napier have discovered in the past few days, the art involves more than just arranging colourful flowers in a colourful vase.
The competition is staged by Floral Art New Zealand's regional clubs every three years, the winners advancing to the national championships in New Plymouth next April. "It's not just about flowers," was how Hawke's Bay club president Annette Jennings put it. "It is everything associated with it - through to paper, twine, wood and even seaweed."
This year's pieces were praised by the visiting judges who deemed Sue Davies' spectacular arrangement in the "passion entwined" class worthy of the Hawke's Bay Floral Designer of the Year title.
The club is made up of about 100 members from the Taradale Floral Art Club, the Tamatea Floral Art Club and Design Art Hastings. Participants had just a few hours to construct their artworks on Friday
The class tagged "Impose" saw competitors armed with scissors only - each given flowers and components to create their work in two hours. Therese Rodger of Tamatea won, and Sandra O'Sullivan from Hastings won the "Affair of the Heart" class. See the show at Creative Arts Napier's CAN gallery until 3pm tomorrow.