Picking blooms for Plunket

THANKFUL MUM: Esther Mabin picks some daffodils at Taniwha Daffodils, Waipukurau. PHOTO/WARREN BUCKLAND

Picking daffodils in Waipukurau year after year has provided around $250,000 of funding for Central Hawke's Bay Plunket.

Taniwha Daffodils has been opening its gates to the public for the past 25 years, inviting school children, retirement home residents and families to come along and pick bunches of daffodils for a small fee.

Railene Mabin is the driving-force behind the farm and has been busy planting a large variety of daffodils at her Waipukurau homestead for the past 40 years.

After having four children, a "little surprise late baby" in 1970 saw Mrs Mabin joining Plunket again at a time when the organisation was seriously lacking in funds, she said.

Keen to raise money for an organisation close to her heart, Mrs Mabin decided to go against the grain and instead of being involved in cake stall fundraisers she decided to sell daffodils which were in abundance outside her front door.

"I sent my 10-year-old son and his 9-year-old sister down to the gate to sell them," she said. "Before long the cars stopped, the daffodils were sold and we made $40. I had made loads more money at the Plunket meeting than the other mums who had been baking cakes so I thought 'selling flowers is the way to go'."

Taniwha Daffodils attracts a wide range of people during the spring Mrs Mabin said and they often bring picnics and spend all day at the farm. She also goes out early morning to pick up to 600 flowers to make pre-picked bunches to sell.

"I do it to get the money for Plunket really. After having five babies you realise how much they're needed."

With the warm spring weather fast approaching, she believes her daffodils will bloom early this year and will open the farm's gates to the public today.