Visitors to Newtown Community Center recently had the opportunity to take in a Standard Flower Show presented by The Garden Club of Newtown. The three-day event celebrated horticulture, design creativity, and the 71st anniversary of the town’s oldest garden club.

“May in Bloom” was a wonderful display presented in the lobby and halls of the community center. The show’s horticulture division, titled “The Victory Garden,” filled the center’s West Wing. The design division (“A Walk Down Main Street”) and botanical arts division (“Wildflowers at Dickinson Park”) filled the East Wing. The education division, “May Hike at Fairfield Hills,” was set up in the southern lobby, opposite a large table filled with club and general information that served as a welcome station for those entering the building during the show.

The club welcomed 12 Federated Garden Club of Connecticut judges on Wednesday morning, May 13. Garden Club Co-President Paula Toi said the group spent 2½ hours judging everything.

“They were very thoughtful,” Toi said May 14. She and others were at the show for its full run, watering and checking on plants and answering questions from visitors. “They offered polite discussion of what they looked at,” she added.

Show Chair Peg Townsend, herself a National Garden Club accredited judge, said the judges used the National Garden Club Standard System of awarding.

“Many club members received awards, including many who entered a Standard Show for the first time,” Townsend said Thursday afternoon. “Some of them were putting something out for the public for the first time,” she added.

“What I value even more than the ribbons and special awards was the team of judges evaluated the entire show — its components and procedures,” she continued. “They evaluated our schedule, the staging and the way designs and horticulture plants were displayed.

“Our vignettes were considered excellent staging for a flower show,” Townsend also mentioned.

The total average for the show was a 95+, which now allows The Garden Club of Newtown to apply for a national award, Townsend explained.

In addition to dozens of entries by The Garden Club of Newtown members, National Garden Club Judges were invited to enter two classes within the show’s design division. Town & Country Garden Club of Newtown members were invited to provide entries to a separate class within the design division.

A Fundraising Entity

While visitors walked through the impressive show, multiple signs and postcards informed them that many of the items being used to stage “May in Bloom” were being auctioned off. Three vignettes hugged as many corners near the community center’s lobby, each filled with items donated by Habitat For Humanity, Garden Club Co-President Paula Toi said.

The online auction opened May 11, closed May 15, and raised more than $1,500 for the club’s scholarship through Newtown Scholarship Association as well as civic and club projects conducted by The Garden Club of Newtown.

A few bidders were very lucky at the conclusion of the auction. Among the auction highlights was the original 18- by 18-inch framed painting by Marcia Cavanaugh that served as the show’s signature piece and sold for $100. A brand-new contemporary style Tommy Bahama caramel brown leather swivel chair with accent chair, valued at $3,000, went to an anonymous bidder for $255.

A four-panel lattice folding wood privacy screen/divider in rich mahogany color, valued at $125-$225, sold for $60. The same buyer also scooped up a matching four-panel screen/divider for another $60 bid.

A third four-panel lattice screen coupled with a pair of Arena Palm plants in planters went home with the person who bid $50 on the lot.

A 17th-18th Century Asian chinoiserie, no value given — but coveted by Garden Club President Paula Toi, among others — sold for $125.

A handcrafted bentwood accent chair with sculptural curved frame valued at $700 sold for $160.

A sage green 20 inch tall geometric side table sold for $60; a 15½ inch tall white ceramic plant stand with two potted plants sold for $30; a decorative vintage style 31 inch tall plant coupled with a hosta sold for $70; and a white ceramic cake stand, light green narrow tray, and six papier mache fruits and vegetables sold for $25.

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Managing Editor Shannon Hicks can be reached at shannon@thebee.com.