Poway Valley Garden Club’s Flower Show and Plant Sale to inspire creativity

An abundance of plants and decorative flower arrangements will greet gardeners and other visitors attending the Poway Valley Garden Club’s 45th annual Flower Show and Plant Sale.

The free event will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, April 13 in Old Poway Park, 14134 Midland Road.

Half of the event will be a plant sale in the park’s gazebo.

Janice Schock, co-president of the Poway Valley Garden Club, said most of the plants for sale were grown by garden club members and can be purchased at reasonable prices.

“Most of it comes from our yards so it will contain different plants that you might not find in a nursery,” Schock said.

Along with plants, a collection of garden art, birdhouses and succulent bowls will be up for sale, she said.

Poway Valley Garden Club’s Flower Show and Plant Sale Co-chairs are Rosemary Anderson, left, and Janice Schock.

Criselda Yee, publicity coordinator for the garden club, said the plant sale is a popular place to find gifts for Mother’s Day or other special occasions.

Garden club members get creative in putting together container gardens, Yee said. One design posted on Facebook showed a plant display in a potato chip bowl that looked like a swimming pool, she said.

At the plant sale, “Farmer Roy” Wilburn will be selling tomatoes and herbs, and master gardeners will be available to answer gardening-related questions. The Nature’s Helpers pollinating group will also have an educational booth where they will be selling plants that attract pollinators, bee houses, and giving out information about pollinators.

Nature’s Helpers Lisa Cobb, left, and Donna Payton will share information about pollinators during the plant sale.

A stone’s throw away, Templars Hall at Old Poway Park will be bursting with blooms as part of the flower show segment of the event.

The theme of the show is “Celebrate,” and entries will be judged by the National Garden Clubs, Inc. judges.

Entries will be submitted in four divisions — Horticulture, Design, Education and Botanical Arts.

Specific sections, categories and rules for each division are available on the club’s website at PowayValleyGardenClub.org.

These “Petite Designs” floral arrangements were displayed in the Great Room of the Porter House.

A sample of the Horticulture entries that will be judged include roses, cut stem flowers, bulbs, flowering perennials, and container grown succulents, flowering plants and foliage plants.

Schock said an “edibles” category can include fruit from a tree or lettuce from a garden.

“Usually we have 80 entries in the Horticulture Division,” she said. “Horticulture is mostly club member entries but it is open to the public. If people have nice roses they bring in we can help them enter it.”

The Design Division will have entries from amateur to professional floral designers throughout San Diego County, Schock said.

One category will be “Table Artistry Designs,” where contestants can show off table settings that incorporate flowers, she said.

The third division on Education can include “Plants and People” displays that explore how plants have supported indigenous people and “Plants and Wildlife” displays that explore how plants support our wildlife.

The fourth Botanical Arts Division can include whimsical displays of a miniature landscape or theme such as fairy gardens, Schock said.

Botanical Arts categories are “Four-Footed Friends, “Feathered Friends,” and “Nature’s Friends.”

Botanical Arts participants can get creative with putting plants in a variety of containers, from traditional pots to terrariums, she said.

“Entries can be something related to birds, four-footed friends or pollinators,” Schock said. “It doesn’t have to have fairies in it, but it could.”

Poway Valley Garden Club member Karen Sanchez helped out at last year’s plant sale.

This year, the Flower Show and Plant Sale will also have a ballot box set up where attendees can vote for the best flower, best plant and best floral design on Saturday, said Rosemary Anderson, the club’s historian and co-Flower Show chair.

“We’re still designing the ballot to include as many categories as possible, but the public will have the opportunity to vote on their favorite in the show,” Anderson said.

Entries can be submitted free and will be accepted from 4 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 11 and from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Friday, April 12 at Old Poway Park. Assistance will be provided in filling out the entry cards, Anderson said.

Detailed instructions for how to enter, rules and a list of contacts is available on the PowayValleyGardenClub.org website by clicking “Flower Show.” Information is also available by emailing pvgc@outlook.com.

Source: sandiegouniontribune.com