Flower Shows and Artistic Design

January 11, 2023

Flower Shows, Chairman Lea Shuba, The Hunting Creek Garden Club

The 72nd Annual Lily Show, “Oh Shenandoah,” was hosted by the Spotswood Garden Club on June 18-19, 2014, at the Skyline Middle School in Harrisonburg, co-chaired by Sandy Hodge and Joyce Overby, who reported 66 artistic arrangements and 268 horticulture stems. A lovely evening in historic Port Republic prior to the event included history lessons, music appreciation and wonderful food and hospitality. Photos

Flower Arranging School was held September 23, 2014, at the University of Richmond’s Jepson Center and featured internationally known arranger from Longwood Gardens, Crescentia Moti. Emphasis was placed on teaching our club members how to successfully navigate the many new flower arranging styles in the ever-expanding online handbook. Artistic Judging Chairman Gladys Lewis presided over a judges’ testing session at the end of the program where Martha Lyn of the Leesburg Garden Club received the A.M. Booker Award. Photos

The 76th Annual Rose Show,“Rose Notes,” was hosted by Gabriella Garden Club on October 1-2, 2014, at the Institute of Advanced Learning and Research in Danville. Artistic arrangements interpreted songs about roses that played in the background throughout the show. Co-chairmen Margaret Scott and Sharon Scott reported 117 horticulture exhibits and 66 artistic arrangements. David Pike from Witherspoon Rose Culture presented a “Lunch and Learn” seminar during judging. Visiting artistic judges, Rose Show Committee members and members of the Board of Directors were treated to cocktails in the Sutherlin Mansion’s spectacular rose garden on the evening preceding the show. A gourmet dinner followed that was prepared by the Gabriellas in the adjacent church and served on rose medallion china. Husbands transported the hot food from the church to the mansion. Photos

Flower Shows Chairman Lea Shuba, GCV President Jeanette Cadwallender and Annie Vanderwarker hosted a program in the fall of 2014, designed to introduce young women to some tricks and tips for holiday arranging, and to open them to the possibility of future involvement with the GCV. It was a huge success with multiple requests to take similar programs around the state.

The 81st Annual Daffodil Show, “Winchester on Parade,” was hosted by the Little Garden Club of Winchester at Millwood Station on March 31-April 1, 2015, co-chaired by Diane Kelly and Suzy Oliver, who reported 441 horticulture entries and 64 artistic arrangements. The Board approved a motion in January 2015 on behalf of the Daffodil Committee to rename the GCV Member Sweepstakes Award to the Elizabeth Clopton Brown Member Sweepstakes Award. A new member orientation was held during judging on March 30. Photos

Flower Shows Chairman Lea Shuba noted the 2015 American Daffodil Society held its national convention in Williamsburg on April 9-12 and with GCV member Dianne Spence taking home Best in Show with her bloom, ‘Pax Romana.’

The 73rd Annual Lily Show, “Lions and Tigers and Bears — Oh My,” was hosted by Fauquier and Loudoun Garden Club in Middleburg on June 17-18, 2015, at Foxcroft School, co-chaired by Lucy Rhame and Elaine Burden. For the first time, the lily horticulture and artistic divisions shared the space with the first judged GCV general horticulture show, “Growing Green,” and an artistic design class that that did not include lilies. Photos

The 2015 Anabel Josephs InterClub Artistic Award was presented to the Ashland Garden Club.

The 77th Annual Rose Show, “The Poetic Rose,” was hosted again by Gabriella Garden Club at the Institute for Advanced Learning & Research in Danville on September 29-30, 2015. Co-chairmen Margaret Scott and Sharon Scott reported 69 artistic arrangements and 94 horticulture exhibits with four InterClub exhibitors and 23 individual exhibitors. Photos

Flower Arranging School was held October 7, 2015 at the Country Club of Virginia featuring speaker Laura Dowling, former White House florist with extensive training and background in French styles. Monitors and A/V equipment were brought in to accommodate the capacity crowd. A prospective judges’ class followed the program, with a testing session for student judges. Photos

The 82nd Annual GCV Daffodil Show, “From the Sea to the Stars,” was hosted by the Huntington Garden Club at the Hampton Roads Convention Center in Hampton on March 30-31, 2016. Co-chairmen Rebecca Fass and BoBo Smith reported 121 horticulture exhibitors with 1803 stems and 65 artistic arrangements. The Daffodil Committee hosted an American Daffodil Society Judging School Part 1 at the show site Tuesday, March 29 — the first step in qualifying as a daffodil horticulture judge and a refresher for existing daffodil judges. Three ADS instructors provided a morning of education on the culture, identification and judging of daffodils. Photos

The 2016 Anabel Josephs InterClub Artistic Award was presented to the Hunting Creek Garden Club.

Other Flower Shows News

The Strategic Planning survey of club presidents in 2015 had shown tremendous support for flower arranging and artistic design, with Flower Arranging School being one of GCV’s most well-attended events. The same survey and subsequent conversations with club presidents showed very little support for GCV flower shows, and a stunning lack of support for hosting flower shows, with high cost, lack of manpower and lack of attendance being the biggest hurdles. Chairman Lea Shuba shared concerns about the future of GCV flower shows.

At the 2016 Annual Meeting, Lea reported how her committee had spent countless hours over the past two years trying to improve the flower show experience for guests and hosts: prepared sample cost-cutting budgets for host clubs and successfully led efforts to significantly increase GCV funding for each show; redid documents guiding the host clubs and for individuals entering a show; streamlined tabulation and awards procedures; reached out to the host clubs with one-on-one assistance; fine-tuned many arranging definitions; and added to the GCV photo albums. She added that the judges’ program continued to be robust and artistic design schedules continued to push the envelope, encouraging confidence and innovation in arrangers.

Lee continued, “What has excited me the most during my tenure is all the innovations that have taken place at our shows. They have become a meeting place for members with shared interests. In horticulture, lily judging school has been offered, as has daffodil judging for the first time at Huntington. Fauquier and Loudoun pioneered a “Going Green” horticulture schedule, which capitalized on showing what is growing in our gardens to compliment the lilies. Gabriella offered classes in both horticulture and arranging in their “Lunch and Learn” programs, which filled dead time between judging and the show opening. Several shows featured vendors, notably Spotswood and Gabriella — wonderful growers and garden craftsmen filled the corridors and, while attracting many interested buyers, they also helped to defray show costs. These clubs also used members as chefs, servers and entertainers, which greatly added to the pleasure at judges’ dinners, while saving money for clubs. The recent Daffodil Show hosted a new member orientation, a real win-win idea. Many clubs used ideas like this to attract a larger audience. Fauquier and Loudoun invited their neighbors and nearby clubs for cocktails, and then provided informal lectures about arranging and judging standards in both the artistic and horticulture classes. Providing information like this, in attractive settings, to our communities, continues to be a vital part of our mission.”