Despite dry summer, flower show flourishes

Marcia Guerrant, left, and Darla Douglas look over entries at the Fulton Garden Club's annual Flower Show. The Friday competition drew fewer entries than usual due to a hot, dry summer.
Marcia Guerrant, left, and Darla Douglas look over entries at the Fulton Garden Club's annual Flower Show. The Friday competition drew fewer entries than usual due to a hot, dry summer.

I couldn't beat the other Helens.

Perhaps I should have known better than to try. Most members of the Fulton Garden Club, including those who share my name, have many years of gardening experience on me. That must give them at least a bit of an advantage at the garden club's annual flower show.

Or maybe not.

"This was my first year ever," Helen Brixie, of Fulton, said. "I didn't care about winning, it was the fun of making it."

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Walking around the Callaway Electric Cooperative, visitors and judges could view a plethora of beautiful blooms and striking arrangements. I spotted everything from an avant-garde, asymmetrical arrangement of amaranth to spiky, alien sea holly to an entire sunflower plant. Sporting goods also abounded, thanks to the "Get in the Gardening Game" theme.

"It was a good show," said Carolyn Oates, one of the judges who evaluated entries at the Friday competition.

Unfortunately, a hot, dry summer plus a later-than-usual date made for fewer entries than normal.

"The heat kept a lot of people away, as did the Japanese beetles," Garden Club President Diane Neterer said.

Flower show judges emphasize pristine flowers and foliage. Just a few nibbles from a hungry beetle can render a rose un-showable. A few classes went unfilled, which meant the Fulton Garden Club couldn't use it to gain points with Federated Garden Club of Missouri.

Neterer said, next year, the show will be scheduled earlier.

Oates added judges did take the weather and insect conditions into consideration when judging the entries.

"One entrant told me she was watering some plants three times a day," Oates said. "That's just impossible for some people, especially if you have a day job."

My succulents and cacti didn't mind the heat. I entered Pee Wee League and Little Winners, both miniature classes. How miniature? In Little Winners, the design couldn't exceed 5 inches in any dimension.

Marcia Guerrant took first in that category with a golf ball in a pink sherbet glass, surrounded by sprays of aeonium and sedum. It was her first year entering, as well. A recent retiree from the Callaway Energy Center, she said she'll definitely be back.

"The judges liked that it had an element of design," she said. "Also, aside from the golf ball, it looks like it could be a much larger arrangement. The judges said you shouldn't look at it and see miniature."

Lesson learned - my entry in that category, which placed a modest third, looked like a sand trap for ants (complete with tiny cacti). The judges also said both my entries were bottom-heavy, which is something I'll be sure to remember for next year.

"You have to consider the principals of design," said Oates. "Rhythm, balance, texture, proportion."

Proportion was the deciding factor in choosing the tricolor award winner in the "Game Winners" design category. Neterer's charming traditional design contended against Marie Pasley's abstract lilies, and an oversized catcher's mitt in Neterer's design tipped the balance.

"If it had been a child-sized glove or just a baseball, that might have done it," Oates said.

Despite a less than winning showing (an honorable mention and a third place), I learned a lot by entering the garden show. In fact, that's one of the flower show's goals. This year, entries had to be paired with a note-card listing the species and varieties included in the design.

"Now I have to remember how to spell Euphorbia," said Helen West, who took home the Petite Award.

The biggest lesson I learned, you have to get up early to beat the Fulton Garden Club participants at their own game.

Procrastinating on planning my entries meant I had to settle for sub-par designs when I couldn't immediately find the items I wanted. The tiny golf flag I stuck into my cactus arrangement was hastily taped together the morning of the show.

But now, I have an entire year to plan my entries. As do you.

Don't get too comfortable, fellow Helens. I'll be back.