Floral Beauty Sprouts From Exhibit Rooted in Tradition

Sandwiched between the grandstand area and a large knoll jammed with portable food booths, the Floriculture Building sometimes goes unnoticed by the thousands who visit the Ventura County Fair.

Unlike the Midway, with its cacophony of gleeful screams and blaring music, or the Main Street thoroughfare, with hundreds of eager merchants, the floriculture exhibit is quiet and sedate.

The gurgling fountains and crunch of eucalyptus mulch underfoot often drown the hushed chatter of enthusiasts who generally come every year to peruse the leafy creations.

“It’s one of my most favorite parts of the fair,” said 59-year-old Sandra Hellier, a self-described green thumb from Ventura who has been a regular visitor to the floriculture pavilion for more than a decade. “It’s so pretty here and I just love seeing what these people have put together.”

The 35,000-square-foot exhibit features everything from flower displays, exotic plants and grasses and elaborate yard-size displays of landscaping.

Unlike popular fair attractions such as the carnival rides, concerts, and car races, the floriculture exhibit has a tradition nearly as long as the fair itself.

More than 100 years ago, area farmers and their families participated in what eventually became known as the floriculture exhibit. But instead of today’s flashy landscape designs with brick patios, cut flowers and hyacinth-covered ponds, 19th-century participants showcased the fruit--and vegetables--of their agricultural labors.

Exhibits then centered around the size and taste of oranges, strawberries, onions and kale, rather than the horticultural and design prowess of flower growers and landscape architects.

“It was the same sort of idea back then, but it’s changed a bit since,” exhibit superintendent Barbara Schneider said. “I imagine though that there was still the same amount of competition as there is now.”

Even though exhibit participants work hard to accentuate the delicate beauty of their petaled botanicals, Schneider said the competition is fierce.

“They’re all friends. But when it comes time to compete, they can get pretty nasty,” Schneider said. “When it’s all over, they’re back to being friends again.”

This year about 200 professionals have signed up to compete in more than 30 competitions during the 12-day fair.

In addition to categories for best design and finest overall exhibit, there are competitions for the best educational exhibit and even one for the best use of water, which was one of the five awards showered on Ojai resident Rodger Embury and his 16-foot-high artificial waterfall display.

Embury, who owns and operates Rock and Water Creations in Fillmore, estimates he spent more than $8,000 on his tropical display, which includes emerald palms, trimmed bushes, pools of circulating water and a waterfall built with special lightweight glass-fiber concrete molded to look like actual rocks.

“I guess the hardest part of all this is lining up the strata on the rock to make it look real,” he said. “After that, everything else pretty much falls together.”

Embury has spent the past 27 years constructing waterfall displays for movies, museums and hotels around the world. He, like many other professional landscapers and floral designers at the exhibit, hopes his display will drum up some business.

“I’m tired of traveling all over,” he said. “I’d like to stay here in Southern California and work on private homes.”

The floriculture exhibit has been holding its competitions almost nonstop since the fair opened on Aug. 12 and will continue until the end.

Prize money for the winners ranges from $3 for the children’s cut-flower competition to $750 for the best overall landscape design--one of Embury’s five awards.

Since the start of competition, a panel of 30 judges--made up of professional landscapers, florists and even a lawyer--has handed out more than $31,000 in prize money.

But as Schneider is quick to point out, the exhibits are about more than just competition. They are about giving fair-goers the opportunity to relax and literally smell the roses.

“The best time to come in here is at around 9:30 p.m. because it’s so peaceful,” she said. “It’s a great place to come and just rest your feet.”