Lilies make seasonal scents

For Holly Jackson growing Christmas lilies runs in the family.

After her father, Garry, died last year Holly, 37, decided to carry on the family tradition and grow Lily Regals to sell to Wairarapa florists and supermarkets at Christmas.

She said selling the flowers was initially a side business to the family's commercial growing business in the '80s.

"It started with granddad, then dad took over. It's sort of defaulted to me out of the siblings but I do love flowers. When I was a kid it was my job to take all the pollen out so it's just continuing that job really and looking after them as well.

"It's just carrying on the tradition of what granddad started."

Miss Jackson will also be selling the lilies, which take about three to five years from seed to grow, at the Masterton car boot sale and farmers' market.

Lily Regals are usually pink but her father bred out the pink to make the flowers more suitable for weddings and other similar events.

She said, to her, the fragrance of the lily evokes a summer Christmas.

"It just reminds me of Christmas really, it's just the smell, this beautiful fragrance."

Miss Jackson said a woman had approached her at the car boot sale and had recognised the flower, from buying them off her father in previous years.

"She had a connection with dad, about the flower.

"When he left people wondered 'what do we do now?' It's keeping up with their traditions really, as well as ours."