Oshawa Valley Botanical Garden & CPS Flower Show

 The Flower Show Crew,

Margaret, Gordon, Ken, Mary Ellen, Lana, Tom, Judi and Brian taking the picture

 Our Judges

Ken Brown & GordonWick

 Judi & Bill Slute, Oshawa Parks

 Our audience the young and the young at heart enjoyed an array of peony blooms during this years show.

and in this years Winners Circle

Best In Show - Itoh Hybrid

Hazel Cook  'Golden Era'

 Best In Show - Japanese

Hazel Cook - 'Black Swan'

Best Novice Specimen

Brenda Campbell

Best Single

Hazel Cook - 'White Pico'

Best Tree Peony

Hazel Cook - 'Boreas'

Submitted by Judi Denny

OVBG & Ontario Peony Show Day 2

We arrived early and collected the required necessities for the CPS booth outside.  It was a windy day so everything outside needed a paperweight or someone to hold them down during big gusts.
We had 3 buckets of cut blooms from the flower show to start with and a few from the Denny's garden. Blooms were being sold for $2 each.  We also had seeds from yesterday which were being sold for $2 a packet.

Before being completely set up people were already going through the gardens and stopping by the booth to ask questions or buy seeds.

There were 100's of people visiting today and we were so busy that we had to eat and talk at the same time, several times Brian and I alternated taking bites of a sandwich and talking.  We had a few people who had been watching us and gave us a few moments to finish our lunch. (which we ate at 1:30pm)  The day was pleasant the weather at times required a light jacket and the people were fantastic.

Brian was asking the men who were walking buy "When was the last time you bought your wife/girlfriend a flower" and this sold a few of the cut blooms and it also had a few men wincing and walking away.  At the end of the day we had two buckets of blooms left and almost sold out of seeds.  We were also excited to have 3 new members sign up on the spot.

We enjoy being apart of this show very much and would recommend volunteering for a few hours or if your not up for that pop in, say hi and see the blooms, they really are a treat to behold. 

7th Annual Peony Festival and CPS Ontario Peony Show

It was a cloudy day before heading out, but, a quick check of the weather promised to stave off any rain until early evening. (Let's hope)
We hope to make this an every year event.  So mark it on the calendar and get those blooms in for the competition.  It could be the biggest show of the year with your support.
Traffic was light heading from Brampton to Oshawa and we made it with 10 minutes to spare.  Brian and I went into the arena and were given our instructions for the clerking and recording.  We beat the judges (barely) so we had a few moments to orient ourselves.  The judge was fun, entertaining and informative.  We had a few classes that had to be rejudged in the beginning due to added entries but everything went smoothly and we were ready for the Councillor when the main event happened at 11:00am.

The Grand Champion winner this year was Rena Preston for her 'Miss America' entry.

We had a silent auction on the far side of the arena and this was slow to start but as the day progressed each peony offered (5= 2 potted, 3 bare root) had bids.  Brian and I were to go outside and volunteer at the booth on the grounds but the inside booth had no one so we were placed here for the day.  Mid afternoon the skies opened up and we had a heavy downpour and strong winds.  Everyone outside came inside and we were bombarded with people and questions and seed selling.  We had a fantastic time talking with like minded enthusiastic individuals and were glad to help out so many.


Our day ended at 4pm and during a conversation with Judi about the event found out that we had few if any volunteers for Sunday .  Brian offered our services and so we will be back tomorrow.