The Waipuna Hospice shop won Greerton Village's Cherry Blossom Best Dressed Window competition. The prize is a $750 marketing package with The Weekend Sun newspaper and SunLive news website.

Twelve shops in Chadwick Rd and Cameron Rd entered the competition, and each of the windows was judged on theme, design, public appeal, quality, originality, creativity and attention to detail.

The winning window featured hundreds of painted cherry blossoms and incorporated the ‘Heart of Greerton' theme into the display. Cups and saucers had been drilled through to create tall pillars and the display also referenced Japanese blossoms with a jigsaw puzzle in the window.

'I went to the supermarket on Friday, bought a potato and cut it into two flower shapes,” says shop manager Paula Taplin. 'I had some help to do the potato stamping on the window. And then it took about four hours to set the window up, because I was being a bit pedantic. The towers of bric-a-brac were the hardest thing to do and we had someone drill through them and chainsaw the wood.”

The Waipuna Hospice shop has two paid staff and 20-30 volunteers helping each week.

The Greerton Library also received special commendation for the colourful and informative displays inside the library.