Not Your Garden Variety Contest
The competition is tense. The rules are exacting. One little slip and you’re out.
This is a gardening contest?
Yes--and not just any old garden-variety one. It’s a Gardening Club of America garden show, sanctioned by one of the oldest gardening groups in the country and stricter than you ever may have imagined.
All the attention to detail makes it tough for exhibitors but wonderful for visitors, who can see dozens of perfect, unusual specimens during an afternoon’s visit to a GCA show.
And this weekend you can visit one of these Cadillacs of flower shows: The Pasadena Garden Club--one of three GCA clubs in Southern California--is holding its annual competition. Open today and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the show will be in Van De Kamp Hall at Descanso Gardens. The show kicks off the annual Festival of Spring Flowers at the gardens.
“Ours is considered a small flower show,” says Peggy Stewart, publicity chairwoman for the event. But that doesn’t exempt it from the regulations found in a half-inch-thick handbook mandated by GCA.
To begin with, contestants must fill out entry cards with complete botanical names of each plant in an arrangement.
“Just to say daisy isn’t enough,” Stewart says.
In addition, the club has to provide GCA-approved judges, and 51% of the entries must be from GCA members.
“The show must be open to the public and the schedule should be ‘creative and interesting to exhibitors and the public,’ ” Stewart says.
The show is divided into two broad sections--horticulture and floral arrangements. These sections are then divided further; for instance, horticulture includes cut specimens, potted plants, parent plants and propagation, and “card table”--a catchall category for plants that don’t fit anywhere else.
Floral arrangement is the section that is typically most enchanting to show visitors--if for no other reason than the whimsical, old-fashioned names given to the different divisions.
What would you imagine “Tea for Two” might mean? To the Pasadena Garden Club, it’s “two complementary arrangements of fresh flowers in teatime containers. Accessories permitted. To be displayed on a neutral covered table 36 inches high in a neutral-colored niche 27 inches high by 24 inches wide by 18 inches deep.” Whew!
Other divisions include “My Favorite Things,” “Farmer in the Dell,” “Easter Parade” (in which contestants decorate a hat of their choice) and “Blue Skies” (an entire picnic scene set up in a room-size cubbyhole). And each division has rules as specific as those for “Tea for Two.”
To ensure that contestants stick to the rules, exhibits are checked by a “passing committee” for compliance.
“The people on this committee bring show schedules, a red pencil and measuring tape,” Stewart says. “They have to be sure the arrangement is in good condition, not drooping, no insects, and that the flowers are in excellent shape with no holes in them.”
“It’s a delicate job,” says Cynthia Lewis, who, along with Susan Seidel, is chairing the show. “The passers have to have experience and tact and a helpful spirit because they can help an exhibitor come into compliance if something is a little wrong.”
For example, Lewis says, the miniatures can’t be more than 5 inches in any direction. The passing clerk may see something just a bit over the specified size and she can help the exhibitor either pull it out or snip it off so that it’s not visible to the judges.
The passing committee member may also keep things from entering that wouldn’t have a chance in the judging.
“The job is to keep the exhibitor from being embarrassed publicly,” Lewis says.
Entries were “passed” Friday morning and judged Friday afternoon; by the time the public arrives today, ribbons will be displayed and the winners announced.
Many guests marvel at how fresh the arrangements stay throughout the weekend: Flowers you cut yourself at home always seem to sag considerably faster. Peg Stewart offers some tips to make cut flowers last as long as possible:
* As soon as you cut a flower, plunge the stem into a bucket of water. Bring the blossom inside and put it into the container of “conditioning solution” you prepared before your foray into the garden (a teaspoon each of bleach, sugar and vinegar and enough water to fill a small bucket). Cut the stem again under water to keep it from sealing as it would normally.
* For your vase, use a mixture of one-third Sprite and two-thirds water. Rush the flowers from one solution to another, and replenish the vase frequently.
The arrangement you put in the middle of your dining room table may not be as ornate as, say, “Get Me to the Church on Time,” but it will last a lot longer than you’re probably used to.
The Pasadena Garden Club show is free.
