Cultivating talent: Garden club members hold flower show this weekend

The community will have a chance to enjoy the beauty of artfully arranged flowers this weekend at the Cape Girardeau Council of Garden Clubs Flower Show, a free event at the Cape Girardeau Public Library.

Marge Sullivan, publicity chairwoman for the show, said the event is a showcase for originality and offers more than just flowers in a vase.

"There are props incorporated with the entries. It is really elegant. There are tabletops, individual designs and more. There are different kinds of uses for all of the entries," Sullivan said.

There are six classes of floral design in this year's show, and all of them revolve around the show's theme, "It's Child's Play." The "Just Imagine" category incorporates larger designs of at least 24 inches tall and 20 inches wide. "Let's Have a Tea Party" will be for small arrangements, appropriate for a child-sized tea party and to include a child's toy in the flowers.

Sullivan said the artistic expression in each entry makes the show like a "fresh flower version of a trip to an art museum."

For space and logistical reasons, each class is limited to four entries and are filled on a first-come, first-entered basis. Prize-winning floral designer and show participant Edna Ruth Fischer said with four entries in each class, there will be four different visions of the theme, but there is one constant in each entry.

"No plastic, silk or artificial flowers are allowed. Everything is alive," Fischer said.

She said many of the flowers in the show are grown by the designers, while the rest are purchased from flower shops.

Fischer has been participating in flower shows since the early 1960s and said she has improved since her first entry.

"I had never been to a flower show before I entered one. I did a kitchen arrangement in an electric skillet. It was nothing like it should have been, but you learn as you go along. Experience is the best teacher," she said.

In the past, Fischer said, she would be up late the night before a show finalizing her design. She said now it is like anything else in life. Experience helps her create a design with less stress and anxiety.

"It's like pie crust -- after a while you can just whip it up," she said.

Like many other designers, Fischer has favorite flowers that she likes to incorporate in her work.

"Mums are really, really good. They will hold. Carnations and lilies are also good," she said. She plans to use both carnations and lilies in her entry in the "Follow the Leader" category, which features a design with the appearance of movement.

While the flower show is intended as a free pleasure walk for the public, there will be show ribbons awarded in each of the categories. Fischer, a former judge, said the standards for each category are exacting. Judges will look at an entry's design, artistic concept, expression, distinction and conformance to the class requirements. She said if a design is extraordinary, it will also be awarded a national ribbon.

In addition to the child's themed floral design categories, there will be entries in floral hat design, floral photography and horticulture, featuring single cut blooms. There is no limit to the entries in these categories.

Fischer said the show is designed to not only entertain the audience but educate them as well.

"It really brings horticulture out of the yard. Everything is labeled, so if you see something you like, you know what it is," she said.

There will also be three educational exhibits about birds, bees and butterflies and the types of flowers that attract each.

The Cape Girardeau Council of Garden Clubs consists of Four Seasons Garden Club, Ramblewood Garden Club and Rose Hills Garden Club. This year's flower show will be from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday and 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday in the Hirsch Community Rooms at the Cape Girardeau Public Library.