On June 18, the National Garden Clubs will hold their Standard Flower Show at the Packing House in Cambridge. (Photo courtesy Trish Reynolds)
The Eastern Shore has an abundance of active National Garden Clubs, and on June 18, they’ll team up to showcase the best of the best in a NGC Standard Flower Show. The show will be held at the Packing House in Cambridge, the building being a project in itself to see, and it is free and open to the public.
Talbot County’s club will be the host for the eight other Federated Garden Clubs of Maryland District 1 to include Chestertown, Dorchester, Four Seasons of Salisbury, Kent Island, Oxford, Queen Anne, Somerset and Worcester County.
The show occurs every two years, with clubs rotating the tremendous duty of hosting the other clubs. Still, it’s all green thumbs on deck effort!
Says Rita Mhley, the TCGC Communications Chair, “You can say that virtually all members in each club have some role in the show. Club membership varies anywhere from 30 to 100 members with Talbot being one of the larger clubs at 128.”
It’s a system that works, as the clubs have come together over 20 years to put on the event.
And yes, Talbot County did just put on another large event, the Maryland House and Garden Pilgrimage in May.
Nationally accredited judges will pick the winners in the 37 classes of Horticulture, 10 Design classes, four Botanical Arts classes, three Educational exhibits and six Youth classes. At the time the show opens to the public, entries will already be judged and awarded but you can browse around and pick your own favorites from all the beauties.
Many of the fun classes nod to Maryland and will include plants all over the spectrum.
The “Buffers and Wetlands” features divisions in Achillea (Yarrow), Digitalis (Foxglove) Class 7 Rosa (Rose), and Salvia. Meanwhile the “Sunset on the Chesapeake Bay” Gladiolus category is sure to be vibrant with divisions for “Apricot Bubble Gum” with orange & pink florets, “Bananarama” with yellow florets and “Milka” with purple florets.
The Botanical Art division, “Fun in the Sun,” features sections for decorating a beach hat, bird house and even a set of flip-flops!
Many of the garden clubs continuously offer programming for youth, and this collaboration show will be no different.
Many of the clubs will be hosting kids’ events gearing up for the big show, including Talbot, which will host a “Young Gardener Flower Show Workshop” at the Easton library branch where participants will make fresh flower bouquet in a beach bucket.
Select entries may even be selected to enter the garden show.
There is nothing like walking past a stunning garden— and treating yourself to a free browse around the Flower Show is like bringing every stunning flower bed on the Shore into one building for a stroll for the senses!
