One Week to Get Ready

The Chester Garden Club's annual Flower Show and Tea will take place in one week. In anticipation of this event, a recent meeting of the club saw three members whose experience in creating and winning floral arrangements for competition enlivened their joint presentation, during which they shared some of their tips with other members. 

Chatting before the meeting got underway, Sidney Spahr and Joanne Jellett discussed the format of their presentations.  Checking out the audience, Jocelyn Cameron (below) completed setting out her props and then returned to the audience to enjoy the first two speakers. 

Esther Amiro, chair of the Program Committee, began the evening by introducing Sidney, an award-winning exhibitor and a part-time resident of Chester.

Sidney gave a very interesting demonstration in which she first showed the audience a cascading arrangement that she had made earlier in the day, and then proceded to re-create the same arrangement step by step, explaining her choices of material and placement as she went along. 

Below, the twin cascades in identical blue vases stand side by side, with a bucket of extra floral material in the background.

Next up was Joanne, who showed how she would interpret one of the actual sections in this year's design class - Breakfast in bed at a Chester B & B - a composition on a tray. As she added each component, she explained her choice of plant material and the relation of each to the overall design in terms of size and colour. For the uninitiated, she noted that, because the competition is about designing with flowers, it was not enough to have a pretty tray with grandmother's china and merely decorate it with a small nosegay as one might do at home. It is the plant material that must be the dominant feature.

And below, the finished product as seen from above (which, as she mentioned, is the way it would be seen by the judge).

Following those two demonstrations, Jocelyn took the floor and, in an animated presentation, provided a host of hints about planning and preparing entries, and tips for transporting them to the show.  Judging by the response of those members who were present, there is a lot of enthusiasm building for the show, which will take place on July 28, from 1:30 to 5:30 pm.  Entries for both the design and the horticultural specimen classes must conform to the regulations set out in the schedule (available by clicking on the side-bar link - Flower Show Schedule). In addition to preparing entries for the show, members have been volunteering to bake and to serve at the tea which is an important part of the afternoon. Details for the entire event are outlined in the Schedule mentioned above.  Members and non-members alike are invited to enter exhibits.