Re: Flower shows--design elements
- Subject: Re: Flower shows--design elements
- From: E*@aol.com
- Date: Sun, 5 Jan 2003 14:30:29 EST
In a message dated 1/4/03 7:35:26 PM Eastern Standard Time, Blee811@aol.com
writes:
> We had tons of fun and had even planted a few women in the audience to
> heckle. At the end, some certified design judges looked over all 25 designs
>
> and were blown away by the quality. One was heard to say, "I studied design
>
> for 25 years to get to the position I'm in, and look what these damn men
> can
> do their first time out!"
>
> So I have a very fond spot in my heart for flower designs in flower shows,
> Beverly Nichols notwithstanding.
But you see, Bill, you did have fun. You guys planned and carried off a
remarkable convention. The shows I have been reading about are very serious
competitions and one's garden reputation rests on the points or marks or
whatever you accumulate over years of entering. They are very, very serious.
Why I mentioned it, is because it strikes me that it is not gardening though
mainly a function of garden clubs. You do not need to ever grow anything.
You do not need to learn one aspect of horticulture, you buy it from a
florist. Yet, if you are member of this sort of group or club, the main aim
to rise via the flower show to ever higher heights.
In the anthology I was reading, the garden club began with women who actually
learned horticulture in a serious way (Louise Beebe Wilder) and somehow this
show thing got in there. The original club women published some very erudite
books. The best of show in Boston a few years back was some theme to do with
technology and the arrangement was a smashed computer with flowers stuck into
it. It did attract a lot of attention and someone must have been proud of it
but you do not have to grow a daisy to do this.
I wondered if our perennial gardeners do this kind of thing and since only
Sophia (with experience, I can tell) answered so I guess we are not all
sticking flowers into smashed computers to earn life points or steps up or
whatever it is you earn.
Claire Peplowski
NYS z4
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