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VCS Exhibits at York County Gardening Extravaganza
picture submitted by Eric Hillerman

Bob Ward, Nancy Splan, Sandy Godwin and I enjoyed a day at the York County Gardening Extravaganza, hosted by the York County Extension Office and the York County Master Gardeners on Saturday, March 5, 2005.

We manned a table to hand out VCS materials and sold 25 one gallon camellias. In addition to meeting many interesting master gardeners and exchanging growing ideas, we visited with the other exhibitors. I enjoyed hearing stories, by the Norfolk Zoo horticulturist, on challenges of maintaining plants in the zoo exhibits. See more at http://www.virginiazoo.org/horticulture/. We also learned about butterflies, wild flowers, rhododendrons, holly and roses. These society members talked with us while the master gardeners were in class.

As usual the camellias where in great form and a big draw for the Master Gardeners. Sandy and Nancy were busy taking money, putting on sold ribbons, and handing out planting instructions at breakneck speed. Bob Ward, our New Member Ambassador, was hard at work recruiting new members and talking about the free air layers to new members program. His plants are always the unusual, no longer available through retailers, very collectable. Unfortunately this hard winter and recent hard freeze eliminated any blooms so his plants couldn't compete with the sale plants. We recruited one new member. Last year at this event Bob recruited 10 new members with his showy blooms.

Our second year with York Count Gardening Extravaganza was a success because of the enthusiastic efforts of Sandy, Nancy and Bob. We spread the joy of camellias to all who passed our table.