Rodney Stevens
When Ray Smith took it upon himself to grow flowers to beautify the dining room at the Uniting Caroona Yamba aged care home, he never imagined he’d be dealing with a ‘mutant’ Marigold.
But in an extraordinary ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ esq case, that is exactly what happened, when a single Marigold plant grew to more than four times the size of the seedlings with which it was planted.
Now Mr Smith said he wanted to reach out to the community for an answer as to why this mega Marigold had grown to almost five feet tall.
“I’m the unofficial grower of flowers here, I’ve been growing them out the back to put in the dining room,” he said.
“I went out to Maclean to Mitre 10 and the garden centre there and I bought two or three punnets of Marigolds, and I planted them so when they grew they could be seen from the dining room.”
In addition to his gardening green thumb, Mr Smith also commissioned a local business to make a bird feeder for the gardens at Caroona so the residents can enjoy our beautiful local species.
He said the bird feeder will bring birds to the garden to give pleasure to all the residents without causing any inconvenience for Caroona staff.
“The look of enjoyment is great to see on the residents faces,” he said.
“The gardens are full of flowers and much admired by all the residents, so a flock of Lorikeets or Honeyeaters are an extra bonus.”
When it became evident Mr Smith was dealing with a ‘mutant’, he said he thought the Marigold may have been a weed.
“One of them started growing a lot bigger than the others and I didn’t know if it was a weed or not so I let it grow and it just kept growing,” he said.
“It’s about four feet six inches high now and all the rest of the Marigolds planted at the same time are about a foot high.
“One of the carers took a photo of a leaf in the giant Marigold and had it identified online as a Marigold.”
Mr Smith said he hoped readers of the CV Independent could help him solve the mystery of the mutant Marigold.
“We didn’t know if it was some different breed or some sort of hybrid, but we thought someone locally might know,” he said.
If you have an answer to how the Marigold at Caroona Yamba grew to such a hug size compared to others planted at the same time email journalistyamba@cvnews.com.au and we will let Mr Smith know.