Flower Shows and Artistic Design

May 2, 2022

Chairman Charlotte Benjamin, The Garden Club of Fairfax

The 64th Annual Lily Show was hosted for the second year by the Garden Study Club on June 21-22, 2006, at the Piedmont Arts Association in Martinsville. “My Fair Lily,” chaired by Barbara Holland and Susan Critz, featured 68 artistic arrangements, 177 horticulture stems and 111 exhibitors.

Flower Arranging School was held on September 19, 2006, at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. Lee Snyder of Harborfront Garden Club led a record number of attendees skillfully through the “Nuts and Bolts of Flower Arranging.”

The GCV Lily Committee hosted a lily program at the Kent-Valentine House on September 27, 2006. Laura Anne Brooks of the Middle Peninsula Garden Club presented a program on Growing, Showing and Arranging Lilies. David Diller showed his slide collection to illustrate classification.

The 2006 Rose Show, River Reflections, was hosted by the Garden Club of the Middle Peninsula on October 4-5 at Christchurch School, chaired by Anne Bland and Lexi Byers. The show reported 138 exhibitors, 351 stems and 71 artistic arrangements. Virginia Guild was on hand to present the first Virginia Brown Guild Perpetual Award to the best artistic arrangement in the show.

A lovely, antique silver plate was presented to GCV at the 2006 fall Board of Governors in memory of Decca Gilmer Frackelton. The plate, given by her family and the Rappahannock Valley Garden Club, will be known as the Decca Gilmer Frackelton Award and will be presented annually for the best arrangement in a GCV Daffodil Show.

The 2007 Daffodil Show was hosted by the Rappahannock Valley Garden Club on April 4-5 at the University of Mary Washington Jepson Alumni Center. Co-chairmen Kitty Lee Wafle and Jeanette Cadwallender reported 2281 stems and 14 InterClub daffodil collections.

Charlotte reported at the 2007 Annual Meeting that the Boxwood Garden Club and the family of former Boxwood president Anne Miller Anderson Stuckey had made a memorial gift designated to underwrite the cost of a speaker at Flower Arranging School for ten years.

When the Garden Club of Virginia received a request to provide floral arrangements for the 2007 rededication of the Capitol, the black-tie gala and the visit by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, GCV floral arrangers gathered in force for two weeks. Mary Nelson Thompson described the experience.

“The classic Roman temple edifice, designed by Thomas Jefferson as our state house, sparkled in its splendor. Many experts skillfully restored the old section and added a new addition to incorporate modern technology and infrastructure. It is truly the crown jewel of the Commonwealth.

Providing floral arrangements worthy of such a masterpiece was quite an awesome challenge, particularly since the timing was during and immediately following Historic Garden Week. Construction and cleaning were ongoing up to the last minute. More than five carloads of containers had to be selected for placement and transported to the Capitol. Designs were chosen, flowers ordered, and auxiliary materials cut and conditioned. Complicated mechanics were overcome. All of this was completed under the restraints of ultra-tight security.

These arrangements included a 15-foot centerpiece placed on a granite cube, which was completed by the construction crew just three hours before the guests arrived. Twelve of us worked with ladders in the midst of guards and dogs brought in to detect possible explosives. When almost one-hundred period and contemporary designs were completed, the committee felt exhilarated with accomplishment.”

A Rose education program was held on September 19, 2007, at the Kent-Valentine House.

A Flower Arranging Workshop was held at Lewis Ginter in March 2007. Led by Lee Snyder, each participant created an Early American and a Late Colonial design to take home.

The 65th Annual Lily Show, Wonders of Our World, was hosted by the Winchester-Clarke Garden Club June 20-21, 2007, at Millwood Station, chaired by Susan Clayton and Jean Gilpin. In spite of inclement weather, the show reported 191 horticulture entries and 45 artistic InterClub arrangements. In conjunction with the show, a two-day lily judging school was offered at Blandy Education Center on June 18-19, the first of a two-year program.

Flower Arranging School at Lewis Ginter, September 18, 2007, with Julia Clevett, an internationally known floral design instructor and arranger. Her arrangements were auctioned off to membership and a beautiful, Victorian bronze container was donated anonymously for a silent auction. For the first year, a portion of the Millie Stuckey memorial donation was used to help defray speaker costs. (The Boxwood Garden Club donation was made in honor of former Boxwood president Anne Miller Anderson Stuckey and stipulated that the GCV Treasurer be allowed to take approximately 10% of the amount each year to underwrite the cost of a speaker at Flower Arranging School until the entire amount was used.)

The Rose Committee held a meeting and workshop at the Kent-Valentine House on September 19, 2007, to choose the 2008 rose collection and to share tips for successfully exhibiting roses.

The 69th annual Rose Show was hosted on October 3-4, 2007, by the Garden Club of the Middle Peninsula at Christchurch School, chaired by Lexi Byers and Anne Bland. They reported 106 exhibitors, 215 stems and 64 flower arrangements.

The 2008 Daffodil Show was hosted by the Garden Club of the Northern Neck on April 2-3 at White Stone Church of the Nazarene featuring 1654 blooms. The Pat Lawson Memorial Trophy, given in memory of Roanoke Valley Garden Club member Pat Lawson by her family, was awarded for the first time at the 2008 Daffodil Show for the best single stem in Division 7.

Flower Shows Committee Chairman Charlotte Benjamin reviewed committee strategic planning accomplishments at the spring 2008 Annual Meeting. One intangible goal, “to review flower shows,” was tackled with the help of an outside consultant and included assessing the amount of time and money spent on flower shows by host clubs, and by investigating the idea that flower shows could benefit from GCV state-level marketing and financial support. The idea of GCV support would also include assistance with speakers and programs for each show.

Charlotte called on Lucy Huff of Rivanna Garden Club to announce the Mary Jean Prince Rose Trophy, a beautiful silver vase given in her honor by Rivanna Garden Club, to be awarded for the first time at the 2008 Rose Show for the best blue ribbon in Section III, Class 30, the GCV Member Club Rose Collection.

Charlotte closed her report and presented the 2009 Garden Club of Virginia InterClub Artistic Award to the Virginia Beach Garden Club.