Garden Club Annual Flower Fair

The fast-paced, high stakes and hazardous world of gardening is rarely more so than on Vashon Island, and the Vashon Maury Island Garden Club Annual Flower Fair provides the general Island population with their best opportunity to see the hard-won "fruits" of Garden Club member's efforts.

Club members have worked diligently for the last year so that Islanders may enjoy the species, cultivars and hybrids that they, as children, never had. To bring this event to the island, Club members have struggled mightily, even heroically, against the constant threat of organized, heavily-armed roving gangs of slugs and Black-tail deer and the vicious sabotage of horse tails, nettles, dandelions and Evergreen Blackberry fifth-columnists attempting to bring down their gardens from inside. In honor of their comrades fallen in garden battles lost and won, Club members hope you will attend.

Quoting Vashon-Maury Island Garden Club president J. R. Crawford, "It's about the plants." After a brief pause, she added, "And gardens. Yes, gardens, too. It's also about gardens."

The categories of competition are generally: Annuals, Bulbs, Dahlias, Flower Arrangement, Grasses, Herbs, Perennials, Roses, Shrubs, Trees, and Vegetables and Fruits; in short, there should be something at the Flower Fair for every horticultural or gardening taste. Admission to the event is entirely free and every attendee has the opportunity to vote for their favorites in each competitive category as well as for "best of show". Winners are published in subsequent newspaper issues.

The Club has a long and venerable history, meeting somewhat informally prior to 1952 and then formally joining the Washington State Federation of Garden Clubs in what was then the Snoqualmie District and is now the Greater Seattle District. Membership within the Federation was maintained until 1997 when the Club withdrew due to the increasing costs of participation in Federation events. The general Garden Club tradition of pleasantly competitive flower shows originated as Club participation in similar Federation events, and the Vashon-Maury Island Garden Club Annual Flower Fair is the local continuation of that tradition.

According to Club Historian Jaralene Spring, membership in the Garden Club is open to all who wish to join.

The Vashon Maury Island Garden Club Annual Flower Fair, as in recent years, will be held at the Vashon Library over two days: Friday, July 29, 1-6 PM and Saturday, July 30, 10 AM-3 PM.