GCA Flower Show

.… went to a GCA Flower Show in Southport CT in order to compare and contrast a GCA show with a Federated one. I totally enjoyed it! While staged by the Fairfield Garden Club, it encompassed all the clubs in Zone II…of which there were 15 or 20.

Entitled “Harbor Reflections,” it was fitting to hold it in Southport. There were 5 classes in Division I, Flower Arrangement Classes…..what we would call “Design.” The Horticulture classes in Division II were an interesting mix. The first was a “Gavel Competition,”….all Streptocarpus “Midnight Flame.” The second was a plant exchange of seaside plants adapted to Zone II coastal conditions. There was a trough planting with a minimum of 3 different species in each container. Four through ten were cut specimens, and then there was a Par Class for anything that did not fit anywhere else …… the dreaded “Any Other!” A par class only judges a plant against perfection and not compared to any other entries on the table.

The plant exchange was interesting. All the clubs in Zone II participated, bringing at least 3 plants each, and whoever got a blue did not take home that same plant but got to choose another blue to take home. Then, in Division III, there were four classes of photography…three color and one monochrome! And the show was rounded out with a Conservation exhibit and an Educational one.

Class titles were great:

Adrift (and) … Calm Before the Storm
Shipwreck … Welcome Ashore
Sailor’s Valentine … Red Sky at Night
By the Sea … Precious Cargo
The Oyster’s Pearl … Making Waves
Morning Mist … Reflections
Unfurled … and Whitecaps

While GCA has workshops within each zone, there is no school where one can learn to be a judge, although each judging panel will include new and old judges. Their handbook,” The Yellow Book,” is not held in as high esteem as our handbook (owned by many of them). The only other noticeable difference, to me, was that two…or even three…people are encouraged to work on a design entry together, so as to learn the ropes.

The ladies were welcoming and hospitable (even though I was NOK*) and shared with us that they had a dinner the evening of the opening of the show (they were frantically adding up points before the dinner so they could announce who had the most points and other such statistics) and several workshops on the morning of the next day, since they were all together anyway. Paul Newman’s restaurant’s chef did one workshop, so we checked out his place after photographing the show. And a wonderful time was had by all!

*not our kind