A Blooming Affair is a yearly garden and craft market day organised by the South African Old Roedeanian Association.  Held in Roedean’s beautiful gardens, the school turns into a beautiful craft market where you can enjoy scrumptious food, treat yourself to bespoke quality goods and enjoy an exclusive tour of the gardens.  A great day out for families and friends alike, do not miss our yearly event on the first Saturday of October each year.

For over 35 years, the late Anne Lorentz created a magnificent garden of botanical interest at Roedean, a garden that ‘intertwines’ with the school’s 118-year history. Fiorina and Selwyn Jansen have been entrusted with the care and development of the Roedean’s gardens for the past 11 years, during which time they have built on Anne’s legacy. 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.

Beneficiaries of the event are chosen on an annual basis in terms of our policy on funding of charitable organisations. The proceeds of our 2019 event were donated to The Roedean Academy, The Roedean School Access Awards Fund, The Link Literacy Project, 1st Things 1st and Gardens of the Golden City.  All unsold books were donated to the Society for Animals in Distress. The proceeds of our 2020 online shop were donated to The Roedean Academy.

Unfortunately, we were not able to host our annual A Blooming Affair Garden & Craft Day in its usual format in 2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions and precautionary measures.  In light of this, we launched this online shop in order to raise funds for our beneficiaries.

We curated a selection of magnificent roses and garden care products as part of our online “Rose Festival” shop.

The South African Old Roedeanian Association appeals to the public and our Roedean community to help us raise funds for our beneficiaries by making a donation.  We hope that through your generous donations on this platform, we will be able to raise sufficient funds to support our beneficiaries!

You are most welcome to make a donation at any time!  Any donation, not matter how big or small, will be most appreciated.

Our online shop includes the A Blooming Affair “Rose Festival” only.  The cost of setting up a multi-vendor online platform to cater for all our Crafters was prohibitive.

We are optimistic that our A Blooming Affair Garden & Craft Market Day will resume its usual format in 2021.  A Blooming Affair is scheduled to take place on the first Saturday of October – Saturday 2 October 2021.  We look forward to getting in touch with our Crafters closer to the date.

Please contact us via our Contact Us page or by sending an email to info@abloomingaffair.co.za, should you wish to apply for a stall in 2021!  Note: Stalls are usually fully booked by April.