Coronado Flower Show

Wowza!

April 28, 2013

Last week’s Flower Show went smoothly and we had a great turnout of entries. Every year there is one plant that is extraordinary, that stops me in my tracks. This year that happened when one of the show vendors, Walter Parkola of Blossom Valley Protea, brought in a blooming stalk of flowers that was like nothing I’d seen before. Walter posted a little sign with the stalk so people would know it was real, not faux flowers!

The Puya alpestris aka Pitcairnia alpestris or Sapphire Tower, looks like a grass, but is actually a bromeliad. This plant is a great choice for xeriscape plantings. It grows in full sun or part shade, and is drought tolerant. This flower stalk blooms out of the middle of a clump of skinny, sharp blades with teeth!

I couldn’t get over the color of the flowers, sort of a bright, steely blue-green, which, although you can see the unusual color, my camera didn’t fully capture it to do it justice. Anyway, it was a show-stopper. Absolutely spectacular and the focus of a lot of attention and conversation amongst flower show attendees.

Thanks to Walter Parkola for sharing his incredible specimen at the show!

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It’s SHOWTIME!

April 19, 2013

This is where I’ll be spending my weekend.

This weekend is the Coronado Flower Show – April 20 and 21. The show hours are Saturday from 1:00pm-5:00pm and Sunday from 10:00am-4:00pm. There is something for everyone including: Floral Design, Horticulture, our great Youth section, plus music on the bandstand throughout the show, a plant sale, food and a beer tent, and interesting, educational displays. This is Coronado’s longest running tradition so, come to the show and enjoy a great community event. It’s a great show!

If you are entering plants, you need to bring them this afternoon (Friday) from 4:00pm-6:00pm or tomorrow morning (Sat) from 7:00am-9:15am. It’s going to be a beautiful weekend!!!

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Floral Friday – Elements & Principals of Design

April 20, 2012

The Coronado Flower Show is this Saturday and Sunday at Spreckels Park. The theme of this year’s show is “A FLORAL OLYMPIAD.” I have signed up to do a floral design in Section B. The theme of the section is Olympic Traditions and the class I’ve entered is The Olympic Rings. Having said that, it’s time for a design review!

Elements & Principals of Design are pretty fundamental in art, but I had never had a formal introduction to them until I went to Flower Show Judge School. In the class, especially at the beginning, I was a bit overwhelmed taking it all in, but it’s getting easier. Some people used acronyms they made up to help keep things straight, but it wasn’t sinking in for me until an instructor compared Elements to the ingredients of a recipe and Principals to the recipe. Poof, now I get it!!! Elements are the tangibles and Principles are how you use those tangibles.

Elements of Design

Color – The characteristic of light by which the individual perceives objects or light sources; how the eye sees and interpret wavelengths of light
Form – A three dimensional object
Light – Illumination necessary for vision
Line – One-dimension visual path through design
Pattern – design formed by solids and spaces between them
Size – the perceived or visual dimensions of components rather than actual dimensions
Space – the open area in and around a design
There are 3 kinds of space – total space, space within plant material, space established in design
Texture – Surface quality of a material

The only way I can remember the Elements is to put them in alphabetical order.

Principals of Design

Balance – visual balance or stability
Dominance – the greater impact of one element over the others
Contrast - use of opposite characteristics to emphasize differences
Rhythm – created by a dominant visual path of lines, forms, and/or colors in a design
Proportion – comparative relationship of areas and amounts
Scale – the size relationship of one object in a design compared to another

Some people use BADCROPS as an acronym to remember Principles. Drop the vowels and you have your PRINCIPLES.

I have realized over time that I use Elements and Principles in a lot of creative things I work on. If I had majored in art, I probably would have gotten this training in some form, but better late than never. I love learning something that changes my perspective, and the Elements and Principles were a biggie.

This is what I’m entering in the Coronado Flower Show. I wonder what the judges will think about my design.

Floral Design - Section B Theme: Olympic Traditions Class: The Olympic Rings

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Creme de la Creme

April 17, 2012

Last week was Coronado’s famous Home Front Judging. The objective is to get the community into a collective effort to spruce up the town. Residents take this event very seriously, and yard work goes into overdrive to get gardens get spruced up. Volunteer judges fan out all over town, judging with a set criteria, but it’s a volunteer squad and can be subjective, so some people aren’t always happy with the final results. It’s a tradition that livens up conversation around town the week before our beloved Flower Show.

I spent Saturday driving around Coronado, looking at beautiful homefronts. Seven judges narrowed down the field of top homefronts to the top winner, runner-up and the Top 10. It was a long day, and probably the hardest day of judging I’ve done in the last few years due to the profusion of blooms this year. It’s been a weird year of weather, but flowers are blooming like crazy! We drove all over town, grading and admiring. We awarded the last Top Ten award to a sweet little house on Orange Avenue. The owner was so touched she got tears in her eyes. A nice finish to a fun day.

I didn’t get pictures of all the homes we looked at but here’s a selection of top homes we looked at on Saturday.

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This is what my weekend is about….

April 15, 2011

Yours truly wrote an article about the Coronado Flower Show so you can read about it here.

86th annual CORONADO FLOWER SHOW

: LevacyPhoto.com

: LevacyPhoto.com

: LevacyPhoto.com

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Here Comes the Judge!

April 20, 2010

The 85th annual Coronado Flower Show was this past weekend and I have participated in about 40 of those years, entering plants and cut flowers. This year I moved into unfamiliar territory because, in addition to my usual horticulture entries, for the first time ever, I entered (drum roll, please) the Design Section. Daunting, to say the least.

In the past, I’ve written about Flower Show Judge School that I’ve been slowly working my way through. Frankly, it would be faster to get a Master’s Degree than to become a Flower Show Judge with all the milestones required to achieve over time. Since I have finished the four courses, the first stage required to become an official Flower Show Judge, now I am required to enter flower shows and try to win 90+ on horticulture and design entries. It is only possible to win 90+ on one hort and one design per show, but I am happy to report that I achieved that goal this past weekend! Yea! I entered two categories in design, and a bunch of succulents and cut flowers. I received a second place in the picture boxes, but did score a 90+ so that covered my design requirement.

Zeus

My miniature sedum received a first in Succulents, so that covered the hort requirement.

Cremnosedum

I also was part of judging the show for the first time. I served as a student judge on a panel of four, judging some of the Table Tent entries as well as container plants in Horticulture. TheElements and Principles of Design came in very handy and I learned a lot about judging with this experience. It was nice to be able to put alot of the things I’ve studied into context.

Here’s the second design I made. I think I liked this one best, but I was happy with both my arrangements and only spent $8.00 on the whole shebang. The brass container I used for Zeus I found for $3.00 at a garage sale and the blue bowl used in Signs of Life I found in the garbage! I spent $5.00 on Oasis to use in the containers. The succulent cuttings and fern for the arrangements came from my yard with the exception of the Mother-In-Law’s tongue which came from my friend, Susan’s yard.

Signs of Life

Another great thing about my designs is that they will last for awhile because they are succulents, and when I finally do take them apart I will be able to re-pot them and start a whole new set of plants. Sustainable floral design! Shouldn’t I get some kind of Judging Brownie points for that?

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Elements & Principals of Design

August 30, 2009

Elements & Principals of Design have been part of our class discussion through all our courses of Flower Show Judge school. I’m not a floral design-oriented person so although it is making a lot of sense now, it was a bit overwhelming at first. Some people used acronyms they made up to help keep things straight, but it wasn’t sinking in for me until the third session when our instructor, Julia Clevett, compared Elements to the ingredients of a recipe and Principals to the recipe. Poof, now I get it!!! Elements are the tangibles and Principles are how you use those tangibles. Thank you Julia!

Elements of Design

Color – The characteristic of light by which the individual perceives objects or light sources; how the eye sees and interpret wavelengths of light
Form – A three dimensional object
Light – Illumination necessary for vision
Line – One-dimension visual path through design
Pattern – design formed by solids and spaces between them
Size – the perceived or visual dimensions of components rather than actual dimensions
Space – the open area in and around a design
There are 3 kinds of space – total space, space within plant material, space established in design
Texture – Surface quality of a material

The only way I can remember the Elements is to put them in alphabetical order.

Principals of Design

Balance - visual balance or stability
Dominance – the greater impact of one element over the others
Contrast - use of opposite characteristics to emphasize differences
Rhythm - created by a dominant visual path of lines, forms, and/or colors in a design
Proportion – comparative relationship of areas and amounts
Scale - the size relationship of one object in a design compared to another

Some people use BADCROPS as an acronym to remember Principles. Drop the vowels and you have your PRINCIPLES.

As we have progressed through the courses, I am finding I use the E’s & P’s quite a bit in my thought process with my creative projects so that is kind of cool to see the application in everyday life.

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Flower Show Judge School – this is serious business!

August 27, 2009

I mentioned Flower Show Judge School in a post the other day, and I’ll share bits and pieces of what I’m learning with you over time. Having chaired the Coronado Flower Show this year and last, I learned a lot about the process of running a flower show. Thankfully I had a nice group of [...]

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A beautiful Flower Show weekend

April 20, 2009

The 84th annual Coronado Flower Show was as good as it could possibly be this year. Entries into all sections were up in numbers and high in quality this year. The new seminars offered in design, succulents, bonsai and drought tolerant plantings were a nice addition to the program. Saturday’s weather was perfect, Sunday warmed [...]

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Getting ready for the Flower Show

April 16, 2009

Members of the Crown Garden Club worked in the June Miller Garden in preparation for the Flower Show this weekend.

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Coronado Flower Show – April 18-19

April 14, 2009

The tents are going up in Spreckel’s Park! It started bright and early on Monday morning and Raphael’s Rentals is making great progress. They have to because people will begin entering their plants and designs on Friday afternoon, so there is lots of work to do between now and then. Also, check out the Friends [...]

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