Design by Joni Duncan

Which comes first? Growing beautiful plants and flowers and then learning to create floral designs or creating floral designs and then learning to grow beautiful plants and flowers? Whatever the case, lovers of either avenue of gardening found a heaven on Earth last weekend in Boston, MA, where the World Association of Floral Arrangers (WAFA) held their World Flower Show. The event featured hundreds of exhibitors from 30 member countries. The show is held once every three years and, until this year, had never been held in the U.S. The 2014 show will be in Dublin, Ireland.

Honorary (not judged) entry from Kenya. Design is about 6 feet tall.

The Ohio Association of Garden Clubs (OAGC) took the opportunity to travel by bus to Boston to visit this incredible event. One of OAGC’s members, Joni Duncan of Beavercreek, OH, was an exhibitor. Her entry was in one of the 30 classes (with a maximum of 20 entries in each class) and featured commissioned glass pieces by Dayton glass artist Jim Kahle. Though she was not one of the top three in her class of 20, she did a fantastic job and said that learned much from the experience. Kudos!

Miniature design about 5" tall.

If you would like to see hundreds more photos that I took at the flower show and our trip, go HERE.

Good deal

Chris Carpenter of Beyond the Greenhouse in Springboro has a surplus of 4.5″ annuals (many are Proven Winners) that she is selling for only $2 beginning tomorrow, June 23 through Saturday, June 25. Additionally, 4″ pots of blue or white Wave petunias will be $1. Location of sale is 821 W. Spring Valley Rd. in Centerville (near W. Spring Valley and Paragon Rd.) Hours are 9 am to 4 pm on Thursday and Friday and from 9 am to noon on Saturday.

Garden Tour for the Cure

There will be a special 8-home garden tour in the Brookville/Clayton area to benefit Breast Cancer Research this Saturday, June 25 from 10 am to 4 pm. Tour tickets are $10 each and can be purchased at the Design Crew Salon (442 Wolf Creek Pike, Brookville) or at any of the participating gardens. Contact Mary Thomas at 937-397-4599 for more information.