Garden Club Members Put Their Best Talents,

And Plants, Forward For ‘South Pacific’

By Shannon Hicks

As the rains returned this week, members of The Garden Club of Newtown were preparing to dismantle a small standard flower show that had been on view over the weekend.

“South Pacific: A Small Standard Flower Show,” with horticultural and design divisions filled with entries by club members, was set up on Friday, May 18, on the main floor of C.H. Booth Library. Judging by members of The Federated Garden Club of Connecticut, Inc, was done on Friday morning prior to the library’s 11 am opening, and then the show remained on view until the close of business at the library on Monday, May 21.

For those four days, visitors to the Main Street institution were treated to the sights of dozens of entries, large and small. For those who may not have known about the show and entered the library using its rear entrance, a tropical themed plant display and hand painted sign just outside the library’s lower entrance alerted visitors to the show’s presence on the main floor.

Judges followed The Standard System of Awarding in making their decisions Friday morning, while garden club members served as clerks to the teams of judges. Design exhibits were open to club members, as well as by invitation. The horticulture exhibits were open to club members only. Emphasis in both divisions was on fresh plant materials.

Deborah Osborne served as the show chair.

“We’re supposed to do these shows regularly,” Mrs Osborne said Friday morning. “As a garden club, this is perfect for us.”

The club had decided on the show’s theme a few months ago, she said, which allowed designers the time to plan their presentations as well as horticulturists time to cultivate their entries.

“You need time to care for your entries if you’re doing horticulture,” she said. “The hardest part is getting people to do the designs. Talking people into doing that is actually more difficult that arranging horticulture entries. It’s a fear factor of doing something wrong.

“But then you have these categories like ‘Wash That Man Right Out Of My Hair,’ where they are challenged to incorporate a towel into their design, and they all came out so different,” she continued. “It’s a tribute to the creativity of this club’s members.”

Katherine Williams received a first place ribbon and a CT Judges Design Award for her entry in that class.

Ms Williams arranged Dendrobium orchid and miniature Phalaenopsis orchid, daylily leaves, Siberian iris leaves and bearded iris leaves into a rectangular glass container lined with small tan rocks and half-filled with water. Rules of the division called for “a creative design incorporating,” as Mrs Osborne mentioned, “a towel, staged on top of a bookcase.’ Ms Williams chose to tie a loose knot in her towel, and laid it diagonally across the top of the glass container, building up on either side of the linen.

Her “creative use of armature, design type, creative selection and combination of components” led to the awards.

Kim Verdries earned a blue ribbon and a Tricolor Flower Show Award for her entry in Design Division Section A (Bali Hai) Class 1 (“Some Enchanted Evening”) entry. She used orchids, anthurium, chrysanthemums, palm, anthurium leaf, philodendron and sansevieria in the centerpiece for her romantic table setting for two. Rules called for entries to be done on a round 30-inch table, dark blue tablecloth, overlay provided by designer, and all fresh flowers in the arrangement.

Additional winners in the Design Division were Bonnie Johnson in Class 2 (“Younger Than Springtime”), which called for “a traditional mass design to be staged on a pedestal, four feet tall and 12 inches in circumference”; Mrs Osborne for Class 3 (“Wonderful Guy”), “a traditional line-mass design to be staged on a table with a white covering”; and Alma Kearns in Class 4 (“There Is Nothing Like A Dame”), “a traditional line design staged on a table with a white covering.” Ms Kearns’s design had hosta leaves lining the inside and fanned around the top of a cylindrical vase, holding in place bird of paradise, Oncidium orchid and pincushion protea.

Club President Holly Kocet earned a National Garden Club Arboreal Award for one of her rhododendron entries. A rosette of light and dark green ribbons, the award went to Ms Kocet for her entry in Class C (“I’m as normal as blueberry pie”), which was a blue ribbon winner scoring 95 or above.

Please visit NewtownBee.com and click on the Features tab, where this story has also been posted along with a slideshow.