It was too important not to hold the Glen Innes District Garden Club Show, decided organiser Elizabeth Biddle.

Still, it will be a struggle for competitors, with most of the town's gardeners struggling to deal with the lack of water in the worst drought in the town's history.

"We're not allowed a hose," she said.

"And most of our ladies are in their 80s so they can't carry a bucket."

Her own garden is suffering too - she made the hard decision to give up her garden in February and essentially cross her fingers for rain.

"It's very hard. I work in home care and one of my jobs when I go to a house now, if I know the people are trying to keep some things alive if I have five minutes I'll go out and water their garden for them!"

But the garden club, which celebrated their 60^th birthday last year, decided it was too important not to hold their annual flower show: "we need something to think about other than the drought" Elizabeth decided.

The club is making the best of a bad situation, playing to conditions by adding new categories for drought-resilient succulent plants. But they don't expect to get the same attendance as they got in 2018 - that year they had over 300 entries.

A small donation has helped fund extra prizes for the new broader categories.

"It's a depressing situation.

"But I have a son on a property and I went out to his property the other day and that is heartbreaking to see the livestock suffering."

Ms Biddle said last year she had flowers to pick, but this year will only be able to enter pot plants and pansies.

The competition will be held on November 1 and 2 at the Glen Innes community centre.

MORE NEWS: