Renville County Fair

Globe thistle-makes a great cut flower, lasting for weeks in the vase. It also dries well.  I like it because it adds the color blue to my flower beds.

Blackberry Lily-The leaves of this lily remind me of an iris. The flowers are so dainty about 1"- 2".  The seed pods open in the fall, showing clusters of black seeds whose fancied resemblance to a blackberry gives the plant its common name, "blackberry lily".



Coneflower- Here are the coneflower I brought to the Renville County Fair.  I have had a few plants that had Aster Yellows. This is a disease transferred to the plant by the aster leafhopper. This can cause the death of coneflower plants. It is caused by a type of bacteria known as a phytoplasma, which is a parasite that feeds off the plant's phloem (the tissue that carries nutrients throughout the plant). Symptoms include the loss of pigment in older leaves and yellowing of new leaves. Stems may get anemic and the flowers distorted. There is no cure for aster yellows.  Here are a few good articals about aster yellows.

Read more: http://blog.lib.umn.edu/efans/ygnews/2012/07/aster-yellows-common-in-cone-f.html
http://blog.northerngardener.org/tag/aster-yellows-on-coneflower/

Here are 3 of the flowers I brought to the Renville County fair:
Globe thistle-1st place
Blackberry Lily-1st place
Coneflower - 2nd place

Final winners of the Kandiyohi County Fair

These are the people's choice awards.  These were taken on the 4th day of the fair.  They still looked good.

Seed art winner, under 10 years old.

Seed art winner, 11-18 year old.

Best Specimen, Senior Division

It was such a fun week.  I am looking forward to next year.

Winners of the County Fair Arrangements

 Open Class - Award of Merit

 Open Class - Judges Honorable Mention

 Senior Division-Award of Merit

 Jr Division (10 and under) - Award of Merit

Jr Division (11-18) - Award of Merit

Award of Merits-Open Class-Specimen

Class 1 

Annuals-Lisianthus

Class 2 

Perennials-Oriental Lily, pink

 Class 3

Gladiolus-Pink Medium

Class 4

Roses-Hybrid Tea - peach or apricot

Class 5

Hostas-Medium

Here are the Award of Merits-Open Class-Specimen. Stay tuned for the winners of the arrangements tomorrow.

And the winner is.... Kandiyohi County Fair - Best of Show

We had gorgeous weather on entry day.  I will post more photos tomorrow of some more of the winning entries.

County Fair Ribbon Pillow

These pillows were created by Arlene Leach. They were made by using Renville County Fair ribbons won by Arlene Leach and  her mother, Theresa Steffel.  

Today I am logging into Thrifty Thursday with our host, Leigh. Please check out the others here.

I am also logging intoTransformation Thursday. Please check out the other here.

Scarecrow Contest

Here are the 4 entries for the scarecrow contest at the Kandiyohi County Fair. The winner was decided by views choice.  I didn't hear which one one but the middle one was my favorite.

Today is Mosaic Monday. Please check out the others here. Thanks to Mary at LittleRedHouse!

Floriculture Winners

Senior Division- Best Specimen Flower & Best of Show

Best Gladiolus

Best Arrangement in the Jr Division (11-18 years old)

Best Specimen Flower for the under 10 years old.

Best Vine or Branches from Trees and Shrubs

Best hosta

Best Perennial

Best Annual

Best Arrangement for 10 and under

Best Rose

These flowers are not looking there best I took the photo 2 days after they had been at the fair.

More on the fair

This is the best of show winner.  What a gorgeous dahlia!

This is the winner of the hanging baskets.  That basket is amazing.

More flowers at the Kandiyohi County Fair.

Fertilizer Fridays/Flaunt Your Flowers

These photos were taken at the Kandiyohi County Fair last night.  There is a large container garden made up from Kandiyohi County Master Gardeners and Horticulture members.  Each year this display just get better and better. 

We had some bad weather last nigh and the Kandiyohi County Fair had to close early.  I hope to take more photos today and share with you tomorrow.

Today is Fertilizer Fridays/Flaunt Your Flowers. Thank you to Toosie Time for hosting this.  Please check out the other here.

Flowers at the Kandiyohi County Fair

Today was the first day of the Kandiyohi County Fair.  I am a volunteer in the floriculture division. This is my 9th year doing this and I still love it. It is so much fun to see what other people grow for flowers and how they arrange them. I really love getting to know the families and watch their children grow and change each year.

Here is the display with the Merit Awards. This is the best from each class. I should have taken individual photos of each one, but I didn’t think of it. Tonight they probably will not look as nice because we have had some super hot weather here. It has been over 90 and very humid.

Seed art is a category that we started a few years ago. It is so much fun to see what idea the kids come up with. Every year there are more entries in this category.
This is the Champion exhibit in the Jr. Division category. This category includes all the specimen flower and seed art for the kids in the Jr. Division. The background of his artwork is sand paper.

I hope to share more about the fair with you tomorrow.