Penny Carnathan

Penny’s a Nurture And Hold (NAH): Nah, I won’t pull that out yet, it’s still got a green shoot. She likes dragonflies, lady bugs and new stuff only after weeding, pruning and fertilizing.

Kim Franke-Folstad

Kim’s a Want It Now (WIN): Everything pretty, everything now. She will resort to full-spectrum insecticides in desperate situations, and believes it’s her duty and right to buy new plants every weekend.

Both advocate Plant Choice (SOMEthing besides crotons. Please!), lots of color and low maintenance. We don’t agree on everything, but we’re smart enough to learn from each other - and from you.

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Forget the Ferris Wheel, here’s a reason to go to the fair

Posted Jan 30, 2010 by Loren Omoto

Updated Jan 31, 2010 at 02:26 AM

This weekend, gardeners like us from all over the Bay area have been hauling their best potted plants to the Florida State Fairgrounds for the big Horticulture Competition. Winners get huge bragging rights, slightly smaller cash prizes, and a ribbon to prove they’re darned good.

It’s free to enter and, judging by what I’ve seen of your gardens, any of you could win.

I’ve lived in Tampa going on 40 years and I didn’t know a thing about this until Cathy Moore of Riverview called. Kick me! She’s been entering for 20 years or more, and loves getting her friends and neighbors (and now Dirt readers) involved. We’re too late for this year, but I am SO planning for next year.

Participants had to fill out a form indicating what they planned to enter by Dec. 11. There are 10 divisions, including bromeliads, orchids, flowering plants, dish gardens, etc. You check off which divisions you’re entering and what type of plant. That’s the easy part.

Everything looks beautiful when you’re checking off the form, Cathy says.  “Then comes January and everything looks very sad.”

Especially this year. 

Many people enter the same plants over and over again if they’re winners. That’s the case with Cathy, whose 25-year-old (maybe older) rabbit’s foot fern has won Best of Division (Ferns) three years in a row.

She spends hours selecting and grooming her plants before she brings them to the fair. They have to be free of dead leaves, including those errant oak leaves that float in when you’re not looking. The pots have to be non-decorative and clean – even lime from hard water can lose points.

I met Cathy and her neighbor Renee Stroud at the fairgrounds Friday to witness the Submission Of The Plants. Cathy was scrubbing away at her pots. That lime tends to reappear at the worst times!

About five years ago, Cathy entered a little cardboard palm that was just a pup in a pot. It had, maybe, three leaves, she says. She entered it just to have something in that division and was dumbfounded when it brought her a first prize.

So she kept entering it.

“That little guy won Best of Palm division last year,” she says.

He’s back.

Cathy has so much fun with the contest, she likes to get others involved, just to share the joy. That’s how Renee and her granddaughter Savannah got involved. Here’s Renee hauling in a few of their entries. The big kangaroo fern on the back of the cart came from Cathy’s kangaroo fern, which is also an entry. Talk about breeding your own competition!

Contestants brought in their plants yesterday and today. They’ll be judged Sunday, and the gardeners won’t know until the fair opens on Thursday if they won anything.

It works like a dog show: First-place winners in each division get $12 and compete against one another for “best of division,” which pays $20. Then, each of those competes for Best of Show. Only one plant gets that, and it comes with a $50 prize, rosette and gargantuan bragging rights.

Cathy feels like her rabbit’s foot is the Susan Lucci of this competition. She wants Best of Show this year. I’ll let you know if that happens!

And yeah, get ready, I will be hounding y’all to enter next year! In the meantime, if you’re going to the fair, be sure to stop by the Family Living Center and size up the competition. It’s back near the livestock buildings.