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A "rainbow of colors" — this year's theme — blossomed inside the First Christian Church Friday and Saturday where scores of entries in the Maryville Garden Club's biennial flower show filled rows of tables with the vibrant hues of spring and summer.
The club's 36 members have obviously been busy this growing season since there were more than 100 entries in the show's Horticulture Division and about 30 entries in the Design Division.
Though the show represented much of the best of what local garden clubbers have been producing in their home plots, it was really just a small sample of the various botanical directions Maryville gardeners are exploring these days.
While gardens around town boast their fair share of roses, lilies, tulips and daisies, club President Joann Espey and show Chairwoman Sue Powell said the group's members are enthusiastically following a range of interests that includes everything from songbird conservation to organic gardening.
And contrary to the perception that garden clubs are only for those interested in decorative plants, Espey said many — if not most — members also maintain vegetable gardens that reflect northwest Missouri's agricultural tradition.
Along with a stronger emphasis on environmental concerns, Espey said the Garden Club is also taking part in the resurgence of heirloom plants, varieties of vegetables and flowers grown decades ago before home gardening became an industry focused on marketing increasingly hybridized seeds and bulbs.
Powell said there is also a lot more interest these days in organic gardening, which discourages the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. She said that while most home gardeners opt for an organic approach on some level — a big change from a decade or two ago — some local green-thumbers, like Garden Club member Clint Stiens, eschew the use of chemicals altogether.
"I mean you don't really want those chemicals in your yard, do you?" said Espey, another fan of organic growing techniques.
For many, gardening and garden clubs are seen as activities for older folks. And the Maryville club certainly counts a fair number of gray heads among its members. But there is also a youth movement afoot led by Cynthia Null, who advises the 10-member Summertime Youth Garden Club.
Club activities this year have included working with flower arrangements, building pine cone bird feeders and planting and caring for flowers in front of the First Christian Church.
The youth work is important, said club member Don Hollingsworth because an increasing number of young people grow up in towns and cities and have little or no connection with agriculture or the natural world.
For kids who haven't grown up on a farm, getting their hands in the dirt can be a revelation.
"There is a lot of work and study involved," Hollingsworth said. "It's a far cry from the electronic world and computer games and so forth."
A "rainbow of colors" — this year's theme — blossomed inside the First Christian Church Friday and Saturday where scores of entries in the Maryville Garden Club's biennial flower show filled rows of tables with the vibrant hues of spring and summer.
The club's 36 members have obviously been busy this growing season since there were more than 100 entries in the show's Horticulture Division and about 30 entries in the Design Division.
Though the show represented much of the best of what local garden clubbers have been producing in their home plots, it was really just a small sample of the various botanical directions Maryville gardeners are exploring these days.
While gardens around town boast their fair share of roses, lilies, tulips and daisies, club President Joann Espey and show Chairwoman Sue Powell said the group's members are enthusiastically following a range of interests that includes everything from songbird conservation to organic gardening.
And contrary to the perception that garden clubs are only for those interested in decorative plants, Espey said many — if not most — members also maintain vegetable gardens that reflect northwest Missouri's agricultural tradition.
Along with a stronger emphasis on environmental concerns, Espey said the Garden Club is also taking part in the resurgence of heirloom plants, varieties of vegetables and flowers grown decades ago before home gardening became an industry focused on marketing increasingly hybridized seeds and bulbs.
Powell said there is also a lot more interest these days in organic gardening, which discourages the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. She said that while most home gardeners opt for an organic approach on some level — a big change from a decade or two ago — some local green-thumbers, like Garden Club member Clint Stiens, eschew the use of chemicals altogether.
"I mean you don't really want those chemicals in your yard, do you?" said Espey, another fan of organic growing techniques.
For many, gardening and garden clubs are seen as activities for older folks. And the Maryville club certainly counts a fair number of gray heads among its members. But there is also a youth movement afoot led by Cynthia Null, who advises the 10-member Summertime Youth Garden Club.
Club activities this year have included working with flower arrangements, building pine cone bird feeders and planting and caring for flowers in front of the First Christian Church.
The youth work is important, said club member Don Hollingsworth because an increasing number of young people grow up in towns and cities and have little or no connection with agriculture or the natural world.
For kids who haven't grown up on a farm, getting their hands in the dirt can be a revelation.
"There is a lot of work and study involved," Hollingsworth said. "It's a far cry from the electronic world and computer games and so forth."
