Community Corner
Wilton Gardeners Strut Their Buds
The Wilton Garden Club celebrated its 90th anniversary with "Friends, Fun and Flowers," a juried standard flower show at the Wilton Library.
Generally, the words flower show don’t conjure up images of swimming pool noodles, driftwood, or soda cans, but all three were components in works of floral art at the Wilton Garden Club’s 90th Anniversary Flower Show, "Friends, Fun and Flowers."
The first Wilton Garden Club flower show was held at the Wilton Library on September 14, 1922. Since then the show has moved around to various locations such as Gilbert and Bennett’s School, and both Ambler and Weir Farms.
“We change the location often,” said member of the garden club Mya Smith. “But we felt that this anniversary was a celebration for the town so we wanted a location that offered it to all.”
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After expressing her gratitude for the library’s generosity to the Garden Club, Smith explained what a first-place ribbon means.
“First place is the most perfect example of that species,” she said. There were three different divisions in the flower show: Designing Women, Horticulture and Special Exhibits which required an educational component. Each division had additional subsections as well.
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Suzanne Hammond’s Twisted Bamboo won first place in the Designing Women; Present a Balancing Act section; Renew, Reuse and Recycle class for her creation with a bamboo cone, an electrical cord and children’s play pool floats.
Buck Griswold’s chili peppers won first award in Division II Horticulture; Seeds of Change; Section A - Vegetables Grown from Seed; Class 2 Peppers.
All of the judges were trained in Connecticut and travel around to various flower shows in the state. The Wilton Garden Club is a Charter Member of The Federated Garden Clubs of Connecticut, Inc. and the National Garden Clubs, Inc.
In the education section of the flower show the Wilton Garden Club’s Garden Therapy members were recognized for their project with framed ferns.
Another display in the Special Exhibits Division focused on the invasive plants that grow in Wilton. This time of year, bittersweet looks so fall-esque with its orange berries but it can really be a destructive invader to nature.
“We want to educate people that even if you think it’s pretty, it’s still invasive,” explained Smith.
The show as a whole received a rating of 99.5 out of 100 percent by the judges.
The Wilton Garden Club and its annual flower show is open to the public, although most of the submissions came from members’ gardens.
