Flowers decorate Upokongaro's St Mary's Church for heritage event

(From left) Joan Sullivan, Leonie Lennox and Maree Murdoch hold flowers that will decorate the lychgate of St Mary's Church at Upokongaro. Photo / Bevan Conley

St Mary's Church at Upokongaro will be full of flowers on October 17 and 18 for a Heritage Month event.

Floral Art @ St Mary's is on from 10am to 3pm on Saturday and Sunday, with flowers at the gate, around the door, on the altar, on the pews and everywhere else.

The cost will be a gold coin, and there will be two marquees out front with a raffle, pictures and floral creations to buy.

Attendees can get a tour of the church and hear about its history, Friends of St Mary's secretary Lynne Gray said. On Saturday they will also be able to vote, at Upokongaro School next door.

The flowers will be the work of Wanganui Floral Art Group and the event is their main fundraiser this year. They usually have a stall at a Whanganui River Markets before Mother's Day - but Covid-19 put that off limits this year.

The members meet monthly, president Shirley Hastings said. They learn new techniques and provide decorations for events. Most of them have gardens they can "raid" for flowers, but they will sometimes buy or ask for them.

"We have no problem with knocking on people's doors if we see something that we would like to selectively prune," Hastings said.