Flower Show Celebrates Anniversary
The Monticello Garden Club was organized on May 3, 1896 at the home of Mrs. Milton Benton at 248 Greene Street, the location of what is now MeMe’s House. To celebrate the 120th birthday, a flower show titled “Celebrating 120 Years of Gardening” was held at the Visitor’s Center on the Monticello Square on May 24.
Twenty-one Garden Club members and three Jasper County youth entered 71 horticultural specimens and 52 designs to be judged. Best of Show winners were Mary Lou Jordan for Design and Judy Abney for Horticulture. The Monticello Garden Club was honored to have as judges Martha Price, President of the Garden Club of Georgia, First Vice-President Jane Hersey, State Board Member Kay King, and State Life Member Bobbie Appling served as a clerk.
There were five unique design classes. The largest class with 15 stunning arrangements was Roadside Beauty, a design using Queen Anne’s lace. Queen Anne’s lace had been selected as the club’s flower by the founding members because it is beautiful and grows prolifically in the wild in this area. The beautiful white flowers are now blooming along the highways and country roads in Jasper County.
Mary Lou Jordan’s design of Queen Anne ’s lace, several shades of pink and blue hydrangea, yellow yarrow and red veronica in her grandmother’s punchbow won the first place Blue Ribbon and the Best of Show for Design.
Tussie Mussie, a small round bouquet popular in the 1890s, was a popular class with 12 entries. Virginia Wynens took a first place blue ribbon for a bouquet of herbs and purple chrysanthemums in a small antique silver nosegay holder.
The Green plus One design class emphasized the garden club’s official color green. There were 11 entries and Mary Lou Jordan won the Blue Ribbon for an arrangement of green hosta leaves, ferns and orange trakelium in an antique glass bowl.
The blue ribbon winner for the My First Design class with six entries was Bennie Connelly who arranged yellow and pink lantana, yellow coreopsis and yarrow in a white basket.
MonticelloBration was a birthday themed place setting with five entries. Sharon Pennebaker won the blue ribbon for a black and white Victorian place setting on a lace placemat with a small arrangement of blue hydrangeas and purple chrysanthemums.
In the Birthday design, Montana Puckett won a blue ribbon in Elementary Youth for a layer cake of white daisies and pink chrysanthemums topped with a large pink rose and taper candles. Allie Alexander’s Fourth of July place setting with a cupcake and an arrangement of white daisies, ferns and assorted greenery won a blue ribbon for Middle School Youth. Winning a Red Ribbon in Middle School Youth was Julia Proctor for an arrangement of blue hydrangeas and orange daylilies under which sat a miniature table topped with a bouquet in a tiny pitcher.
{{more}}
All 71 horticultural specimens were grown by Garden Club members. Due to the great variety of species, types and colors, 46 first place Blue Ribbons were awarded, 12 of which were for hydrangeas ranging in colors from white to deep purple. Other blue ribbon specimens covered the alphabet from alstroemeria to verbena. Julia Proctor won ribbons for calla lily, garlic bloom and zucchini in Horticulture for Youth.
The Blue Ribbon and the Best of Show in Horticulture were won by Judy Abney for a container-grown planting of sansevieria, hen and chicks, asparagus fern, stonecrop, creeping Jenny and red creeping sedum in a giant clam shell.
The artwork for the flower show was done by Alexandra Clotfelter, a Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) alumna. Her work has been featured internationally and in multiple publications such as The Washington Post and the Huffington Post and has recently been purchased for the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection. She is the granddaughter of Monticello Garden Club member Mindy Clotfelter.
“We, the Monticello Garden Club members, cannot adequately express our appreciation of our unbelievable good fortune in having Alexandra provide such beautiful artwork for our 120th birthday,” said the announcement from the Monticello Garden Club.
The Flower Show Committee members and clerks were Chairman Sharon Pennebaker, Judges Chairman Judy Abney, Mary Jim Cantera, Mindy Clotfelter, Jill Dyer, Norma Mattison and honorary member Jasper County-Monticello Chamber of Commerce President Pam Mayer. The hostesses for the show and reception were Jane Alexander, Gail Parrott, Nancy Pool and Representative Susan Holmes.
It’s our world to garden!
