Daffodils grow Cancer Society funds

MANY HANDS: A bright bunch of daffodil pickers pose for a photo with Jacqui Sutherland (centre) at her home, Whangaimoana.

For 25 years, Jacqui and Alastair Sutherland have been donating thousands of daffodils to the Wairarapa Cancer Society.

The flowers are grown on the Sutherlands' South Wairarapa property, Whangaimoana Garden Retreat, and are picked the weekend before Daffodil Day, on which they are sold to raise money for people in the community living with cancer.

"Other people do a terrible lot for the Cancer Society, I just pick and grow daffodils," said Mrs Sutherland.

"Mine's the easiest job."

She said the South Wairarapa Rotary Club and all her friends came together to help her pick the flowers each year.

The daffodils are then driven to Masterton and made into bunches by Cancer Society volunteers.

"The ladies at the Cancer Society sort them and do a great job.

"It's a pretty big job."

Mrs Sutherland said she fertilised the flowers and then always waited until the leaves went dry before cutting them "so all the goodness goes back down to the bulb".

This year more than 50 buckets of flowers were collected from her garden.

"I told the pickers to make bunches of 30 and there were about nine bunches in each bucket. There's thousands of daffodils."

Today is the Cancer Society's 25th Annual Daffodil Day.

The nationwide campaign is the main funding source for the Cancer Society, raising between $4.5-$5 million each year.

The money raised through Daffodil Day is spent in the regions where it is donated, so that it returns to the same community from which it was given.