Young woman lost in tsunami remembered at Hellebore Day in Truro
The event first started to raise money for Thai fishermen after the Boxing Day disaster
An annual hellebore flower event, started in honour of a young woman who lost her life in the Boxing Day tsunami, is taking place at Truro's Bosvigo Gardens.
Hellebore Day is one of Cornwall's most celebrated horticultural events and sells colourful hellebore flowers.
This year it will bring together people from across the Duchy on Saturday 26th February.
Wendy Perry has opened up her garden in Truro for the past couple of decades, exhibiting and selling her colourful plants in honour of her daughter, Hannah.
The event initially supported Thai fishermen after the 2004 disaster, but now raises money for charity ShelterBox.
Speaking about her daughter, Wendy said: “Hannah was on holiday in Thailand on the beach and the wave came, a 33ft tall wave, and crashed in to the bungalow. She didn’t survive but her husband did.
“We decided because I was selling hellebores anyway at first we’d raise money for boats for the fishermen who had no insurance and of course lost their livelihoods when their boats were completely smashed".
Although the day has moved on from its origin, evolving to support ShelterBox for the past 15 years, Wendy says her daughter would have enjoyed the day.
She said: "Hannah was terribly outspoken, tenacious, and a very talented artist who devoted her life to working with troubled children. Just before she died, I was helping her create a garden and she just loved colour, like I do.
"She was very interested in gardening, she used to call me ‘hella-boring’.
Wendy told us her love for art and gardening ran in the family, with her mother being a keen gardener too. She told us: “For me gardening is painting on the ground. It’s painting with colours and I tend to like it being the colours of Summer. It’s like an enormous canvas.
"There is plenty of joy in finding new colours and patterns from the hellebore – it's endlessly fascinating".
She told us the event has moved on and although she still remembers Hannah through the event, she looks forward to the community feel of everyone coming together.
Wendy continued: “I don't like to talk about it too much now because these last couple of years so many people must have lost so many loved ones and it happens, life must go on. I think my daughter would definitely if she was here she would say you must go on, but it’s a good way to remember her and support a charity".
Wendy says people come to the event from “across the Westcountry” for a “jolly good day out”.
She added: “It has become an institution really from people across the Westcountry come down for the day, I think to support ShelterBox but also for the fascination of hellebores”.
Wendy Perry has grown hellebores by her house for almost 30 years and her Hellebore Day has become a yearly highlight for garden lovers.
She said: "They're beautiful and you can start breeding the colours like I have done and this becomes obsessive. There'll be hundreds of those hellebores in their pots ready for sale, all in flower.
"Just to look at the beautiful colours of the plants at this time of year gives me enormous pleasure and I like to share it with other people. I hope they will come on Hellebore Day".
Bosvigo House will open on Saturday 26 February 2022 from 10am until 4pm and will include live music from folk duo Teylu and refreshments.
Profits will go towards the gardens and ShelterBox in Cornwall.