The chrysanthemums are grown from cuttings, and Mr Sinclair planted his winner in late November to time its bloom to be at its best for the show season. They keep very well in water and, in fact, his Wanganui winner had been shown last week in Waikato.
They require a bit of tender loving care, and while Mr Sinclair said he was not as focused on them as he used to be, it still takes him about an hour each day to tend them.
"The bit I hate is staking the plants. Each and every one of these big blooms has to be individually staked and that will take me at least two days because I grow between 120 and 130 plants.
"And remember, it's only one flower to each plant of these big varieties," he said.
He grows them in polythene bags because they are more manageable, and there was no worry about soil-borne diseases
"Some can be a bit fiddly, but you gain experience over the years," he said.
Mr Sinclair became involved growing chrysanthemums in 1966 after he tried to get his wife to a flower show in Masterton.
"She didn't go, but I did and I was taken with one of the blooms I saw there."
That same year he joined a chrysanthemum growers' club and came to his first national show which, coincidentally, was in Wanganui.
Organiser Margaret Gibbard said she was thrilled with the turnout for the show, in terms of the blooms and the public response.
"We've had a fantastic crowd. They were queuing at the door at 1.30pm on Saturday. The numbers were beyond belief," Miss Gibbard said.
Wanganui last hosted the national show in 2005.
"The show is split between the North and South Islands, and the South Island show is next weekend," she said.
"They used to hold an integrated show, but that was years ago. It simply got too expensive."
