Castlegar was the host of the hugely successful BC and Yukon Peony show last weekend, the first juried peony show to be held in BC. Co-hosted by the Castlegar Garden Club, Communities in Bloom and the Canadian Peony Society, the event showcased what team work can accomplish.
A sold out luncheon featuring guest speaker Carol Adelman kicked off the festivities Saturday. Adelman and her husband Jim own Adelman Peony Gardens in Brooks, Oregon. She is also director of the American Peony Society. Adelman has won numerous awards for her peonies, including Grand Champion in eight out of the past twelve years at the American Peony Society's annual competition.
Adelman provided a lot of information on planting, growing, cutting and propagating peonies in an engaging and entertaining manner, leaving the audience desiring to go out and plant more peonies next year.
The ribbon cutting ceremony and grand opening of the show held at the Sandman Hotel was attended by MP Alex Atamenenko, MLA Katrine Conroy, Castlegar mayor Lawrence Chernoff, Nelson mayor Deb Kozak, members of the Canadian Peony Society, contestants and the lucky luncheon ticket holders.
The show opened to the public on Sunday and was listed as one of the stops on the Castlegar Garden Tour, also held over the weekend. Visitors from near and far came to enjoy the beautiful displays including some from as far away as Prince George and Vancouver and a bus load of 60 visitors from Cranbrook.
With close to 300 entries, tremendous community support and generous sponsors, organizers considered the event a success. “We thought it would be wonderful, but it is spectacular. Everything has been fabulous.” said organizer Holly Pender-Love.
Fellow organizer Darlene Kalawsky stated her agreement, “It went fabulously well. We're very happy with the number of entries. The response has been absolutely amazing. I want to thank all of our sponsors for their support of this event. We can't do this kind of thing without the help of our local sponsors.”
Both amateur and professional growers were encouraged to participate in the competition, which was judged by Jim And Carol Adelman. Judges of the artistic floral design categories were Janice Ferraro of Castlegar and Doug Bradford, president of the Prairie Peony Society. Entries came in from all over British Columbia and Alberta, one even came all the way from Regina, Saskatchewan.
The Best of Show honour went to Adriana Work, owner of Dutch Girl Peonies, Beasley, BC, for her
"Nick Shaylor" a huge double Pink Peony.
The winners in the remaining categories were:
Best Single Peony - "Illini Warrior" entered by Laurie Goetting, Calgary, AB
Best Semi-double - "Coral Sunset" entered by Holly Pender-Love, Warfield, BC
Best Anemone/Japanese - "Do Tell" entered by Arlene Chapman of Trail, BC
Best Tree Peony - "Kim Ka Ku" entered by Cheryl Myers of Calgary, AB
Best Double/Bomb - "Elsa Sass" entered by Adriana Work of Beasley, BC
Best Itoh "Garden treasure" entered by Linda Braun of Calgary, AB
Best Garden Beauty, unknown variety, was entered by Annie Yu of Calgary, AB
Best Artistic Floral Design, Amateur was called "Rock and Roll" entered by Noreen Postnikoff, of Rossland, BC
Best Artistic Floral Design, Professional, was called "The Twist" entered by Darlene Driediger, of Nakusp, BC