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.

 @TheDirtTBO
 The Dirt
 Post your garden photos
 Bay area nuseries
 Gardening calendar
 Planting guide

Most Recent Entries

• USF Poly senate expresses alarm at independence bill in the Legislature
• USF showcases creationism critic tonight
• Times reporter goes to work at USF St. Pete
• Slutty Brownies, Homemade Snickers And Bacon-Wrapped Beef Hot Dogs [This Week’s Weekend Eats]
• USF Poly board member quits, saying USF is scuttling the “Poly model”
• Decision 2012: Florida’s Pizza Primary [Every Slice Of Newsroom Pie Tells A Story]
• USF gets big grant for veterans research
• Merlot Jelly, Korean Fried Chicken and Grand Marnier Souffle [This Week’s Weekend Eats]
• Researchers say cell phone waves can reverse Alzheimer’s
• Klasko and Obama grip and grin
• Genocide, memory and art the focus of USF conference
• Poly announces budget cuts; fires top administrators
• Debate turns into test of free speech. Some students failed.
• Homemade Potsticker, Pulled Pork With Fried Egg, And Unstuffed Pork Chops [This Week’s Weekend Eats]
• What’s up with the USF debate?

More

• The Stew
• The Dirt
• Hot Pursuits
• HOMEwork
• Inside USF
• L Archive
  • Green Lite
  • Bring It!

Monthly Archives

• February 2012
• January 2012
• December 2011
• November 2011
• October 2011
• September 2011

State Fair amateur gardener winners (and tips for future competitors)

Posted Feb 4, 2010 by Loren Omoto

Updated Feb 4, 2010 at 08:53 PM

This bromeliad, my fellow future Horticulture Competition contestants, is the 2010 Best of Show winner at the Florida State Fair. It’s a cross between two hybrids of Neoregelia submitted by Lucy Baxley of Seminole.

It’s not as huge as this photo makes it look—I shot the bird’s-eye view because the colors are so stunning on the crown.

What made it stand out, first among all the other bromeliads entered, and then over and above the eight other Best of Division winners? Kimberly Wilson, a landscape designer and one of the dozen judges, said “rarity.”

“It’s two hybrids mixed together— a plant that hasn’t been done before,” she says. “It’s the latest and greatest.”

So Tip 1: You might get a 1st, 2nd or 3rd in the first round of competition with a mammy croton or sweet potato vine, but common plants probably won’t catapult you to Garden God/Goddess.

Remember, in the first round of judging, plants don’t compete against the other entries; they’re judged against standards for perfection. So if 50 plants in one division, like Foliage, are all healthy and vigorous, have a nice shape and the right color, they could all win a first place, which is $12; a ticket to the fair; and the right to quietly acknowledge your accomplishment among close friends and family.

All the 1st place winners in each division (there are nine, including Orchids, Ferns, Flowering Plants, Bromeliads, etc.) then compete against each other for Best of Division. Here’s the winner for Foliage, an English ivy—reminds me of Cousin It from “The Addams Family.”

What set this ivy apart?

“It’s difficult to grow here,” says Kimberly. “Here, we get fungused out, or mites after a couple years. This one is more than 4 feet! If everyone could grow English ivy like that, it wouldn’t have won.”

Best of the Cacti and Succulents was this strange one, Euphorbia stenoclada, submitted by Rusty Beazley of Tampa.

It’s the tree lookalike growing up from the pot. The second plant, hanging over the sides, wasn’t included in the judging, Kimberly says, because multiple plants in one pot should be in the Dish Gardens division.

Still, she and the other judge she was working with—they judge in teams of two—overlooked that little blunder because the Stenoclada is such a rare thing of beauty.

“The other judge and I are cacti and succulent freaks, and neither of us had ever seen this before,” she says.

However, she was also impressed with another strange one in that division, a climbing onion, Bowiea volubilis submitted by Sylvia Smith of Temple Terrace. It got a first prize in the first round of competition.

The orchid champ speaks for itself. It’s a yellow lady’s slipper submitted by James Kelley of St. Petersburg.

As for our friends Cathy Moore and Renee Stroud of Riverview, the two gardeners who introduced me to this fun new spectator sport, they did quite well themselves. Cathy’s enormous rabbit’s foot fern won Best of Ferns for the 4th year.

Cathy’s neighbor Renee won a 1st prize in the first round of competition for her prolific bird’s nest fern.

And Renee’s 8-year-old granddaughter, Savannah, won a 1st prize for her dish garden in the children’s competition (yup, this is a great way to get your children or grandchildren gardening for glory).

Check out all the winners yourself—and did I mention there’s a plant SALE at the show? (I should have said that first, huh?) Garden clubs will have lots of unusual plants for sale at good prices, and you can get a look at all the plants any day of the fair, which runs through Feb. 15.

The garden show volunteers tell me the best time to visit the show and sale is on Students Day (when kids get in at a discount.) That’s Friday and Feb. 15. The most crowded days in the Florida Living Center, where the plants are, are Seniors Days, Feb. 9-11. It might be worth the crowds, though, to go after 4 p.m. on Feb. 11, when admission is free for everyone. Regular fair admission is $10.