A Blooming Affair Garden and Craft Market Day 2025

A Blooming Affair is part of Gardens of the Golden City, a wonderful initiative that invites the public to get behind our walls and fences to explore Jozi’s best kept gardening secrets while raising funds for various charities. 

Roedean School has a truly magnificent garden of botanical interest, which ‘intertwines’ with the school’s 120+ year history. The Herbert Baker buildings are complemented by beds filled with a great variety of plants, large and small, indigenous and exotic, with roses abounding. 

For over 35 years, the late Anne Lorentz created a magnificent garden of botanical interest at Roedean. Fiorina and Selwyn Jansen were entrusted with the care and development of the Roedean’s gardens for 12 years until 2021, during which time they built on Anne’s legacy. Martine de la Harpe was the landscaper overseeing the care of the Roedean gardens until September 2023. The gardens are currently in the care of landscaper Heather Mansour who is also the owner of Styleview Gardens.

For more information about Gardens of the Golden City and to view their Open Garden schedule, click here.

10h00 Meet at the Circle at 10h00 for a Garden Tour by landscaper Heather Mansour, who oversees the care of the Roedean gardens

10h00 to 10h30 Glee Club on Pleasaunce

10h45 to 11h15 Flute Ensemble on Pleasaunce

11h30 to 12h00 Junior & Senior Rock Bands on Pleasaunce

11h30 to 12h00 Junior Marimbas at Cultural Courtyard

12h00 to 12h30 Jazz Band on Pleasaunce

12h30 to 13h00 Senior Marimbas on Cultural Courtyard

One of the beneficiaries of this year’s event is the Roedean Academy, a donor-funded initiative that has been running successfully since its inception in 2009.

Roedean Academy is an initiative spearheaded by Roedean School (SA). Our primary vision is to develop and sustain an educational environment which promotes Mathematics and Physical Science to girls with academic potential from under-resourced, inner-city Johannesburg schools, including Barnato Park High School and Newgate College. Our class of 2024 achieved an 83.3% Bachelor Pass, with our top student achieving distinctions in four of her subjects.

Roedean Academy provides extra tuition in Mathematics, Physical Science, English and Information Technology. We also provide access to high quality on-line and off-line resources. Besides resources and academics, the Academy provides support to its students in the form of counselling, eye testing and food vouchers, when required. The Learn-To-Swim programme teaches each new group of Grade 10 learners how to swim. We run two camps per year: our Grade 11s go to Spirit of Adventure in the Magaliesberg for a Leadership camp; this year we will also be taking the Grade 12s on a revision camp before they write their final exams.

In addition, the Roedean Academy runs a Next Step programme whereby assistance is given to matric girls in finding tertiary opportunities. Through the years, our Alumnae have graduated as educators, accountants and other prestigious professions. Our graduates have been able to use the Academy platform to launch the start of successful careers. All in all, the Academy changes the lives of its Alumnae and contributes to a sustainable economic future in our country. We are especially proud of one of our graduates who is now working in the field of Actuarial Science, as well as our first medical doctor who is currently completing her second year of Community Service.

The Roedean Academy is immensely grateful to be chosen as a beneficiary of A Blooming Affair. We are indebted to SAORA for supporting us financially, and otherwise, since our inception.

For further information, click here.