Glenda Goertzen
Prince Albert Daily Herald
PRINCE ALBERT – This week the Agriculture and Horticulture Competition returns to the Prince Albert Exhibition Summer Fair for its 139th year.
Also known as the Flower and Vegetable show, the competition is promoted as a friendly all-ages contest with prizes to be won. Competition categories include Grains and Grasses; Vegetables; Fresh Fruit; Potted Plants; Cut Flowers; Arrangements; and Girls and Boys Classes.
On Tuesday, Prince Albert Horticultural Society member Barry Swanson estimated about 25 people would be contributing a total of 200 entries. The youngest entrant is four years old, making the age range this year four to 84.
Swanson said Arrangements is one of the most popular categories for adults.
“That includes peas, carrots, vegetables of all kinds, hanging pots, patio pots, underwater–there’s a class for underwater flowers; it has to be shown completely underwater. There’s a Rough Rider category for the best arrangement in green and white. There’s a Think Pink breast cancer category for pink flowers, there’s a Think Blue for prostate cancer for blue flowers, and so those are kind of neat, and that’s a real art.”
The Arrangements category challenges participants to assemble their entries onsite within one hour with cut flowers brought from home.
“We provide containers, those glass antique water bottles, milk bottles, cream bottles, and we give those to you to use,” Swanson explained. “You bring your flowers in. We say, ‘Here’s your container, you arrange your flowers as you want’ and then when you’re ready, you put them out for judging.”
The Arrangements activity and judging of all categories took place Wednesday morning. Entrants appeared to be enjoying themselves despite the pressure.
“I love it down here in the Ag and Hort Committee,” said Elaine McMillan as she hurried to complete a last-minute arrangement with leftovers from the 27 other arrangements she had already entered. “The people are just fantastic and the sponsors too, of course. Without our sponsors, we wouldn’t be able to continue.”
McMillan has been entering Exhibition classes for 66 years, most of those with the 4H & Light Horse Show. For the past 15 years, her interests have been with Agriculture and Horticulture. She hopes others will come to share her enthusiasm.
“I would love to see more entrants. Everybody thinks you need so much experience, and you don’t. You don’t have to do arrangements; you can come and enter a single flower in our Cuts or you can enter your patio plants or your house plants. There’s so many different categories.”
She pointed out that more people are growing gardens now. “It would be lovely to see more veggies in our veggie department as well, or fruit. We do fruit and berries as well and of course grains and grasses for the farmers and children. We’ve got more children entries this year than we’ve had the last two years. And good prize money for the kids too.”
In the Girls and Boys Classes, vegetables are a favourite entry.
“Peas and carrots,” Swanson said. “It’s easy for them to pick.”
While the prizes inspire the children, they aren’t prioritized by the adult entrants of the show.
“Just the camaraderie and keeping it alive,” Swanson said, speaking of his motivation for remaining involved with the ‘Ag and Hort’ for 27 years. “It’s important to me.”
Mayor Greg Dionne is the Director of the Prince Albert Exhibition Association. He stopped by late Wednesday morning, bucket of ice in hand, to check on the progress of the show, but all eyes were on competition judge Ruth Duryba. She moved slowly along the tables, carefully examining each entry before making her decision. By the time the show opened to the public at noon, entries were accompanied by First, Second, and Third Prize ribbons.
Now that the Agriculture and Horticulture arrangements are complete, they will serve as subjects for the final categories of the Photography Competition. The Photography entries are on display in the Main Hall along with all entries for the Agriculture and Horticulture Competition.
New this year is the People’s Choice Award, where attendees vote on their favourite for Best in Show for each competitions. The winners will be selected at 5:00 pm on the final day of the Exhibition, Saturday, August 3rd.
