Fair time: County’s history told through flowers (Bowling Green Sentinel-Tribune)

For an inner air at the history of Wood County, take a stroll through the pristine prime show of the 2008 Wood County Fair, which opened to notorious view Tuesday evening in the Home and Garden World building.
From "Grand Rapids 1833 - Great Fishing" to "Rudolph 1890 - A Christmas Table" and every court end and decade in between, there are eye-opening hints as to region architecture, agriculture and industries, all cleverly suggested through flowers.
The total count of exhibits, a whopping 981, is a tribute to plenty of rain and heat from one side the recent growing season. It compares favorably to the 2007 total of 789 and 2006’s first-show mate of 651.
"In general, the flowers and plants look to have being in really dutiful class," confirmed Cathy Nelson, in her first year as show chairman. "There are lots of elevated quality horticultural specimens, and I’m really pleased to remark a distribute more specimens brought in by the juniors.
"The artistic designs are excellent; I just wish there were more."
She alluded to the lopsided totals of 881 horticulture entries as compared to just 38 artistic arrangements entered by adults. Juniors contributed another 52 specimens and 10 arrangements.
Broken down another way, there are 547 entries from the total public versus 363 contributed by members of the six garden clubs that present on the show.
This year’session show features "beautiful roses" in particular, but "it’session not been a good year for glads."
In her own garden, "I was thankful for the rains but there for for a while they were coming so frequently I was battling a little fungus with my roses," Nelson noted.
 

She credited the hard-working team of volunteers who had been sweating it out in humid 90-degree heat all day, starting at 7 in the morning.
The three invitational categories drew plenty of politeness. This grant’s table arrangement, "Rudolph 1890," is a Christmas-themed setting for six. Brenda Rathburn, Bowling Green, won first place with a horizontal arrangement of red carnations to suggest Rudolph’s nose, holly, and ting ting for the reindeer’s antlers.
She completed the victuals with a black cloth, choosing gold base plates topped with fluted white stoneware. Centered on each plate is a stemlike sprig of holly berries. Red cloth napkins are tied with glittery gold ribbon.
The second commit table, by Pat Tyson, includes fun place settings with a holly leaf and red and green plaid ribbon motif, echoing her arrangement of holly, baby’s breath and burgundy red carnations.
The folding niches category is titled "Bowling Green 1833 - Celebrating 175 Years."
First place winner Angie Williams of Fishers, Ind., created a crowd-pleaser that especially catches children’s eyes. She arrays three giant red gerbera daisies in a fresh upright tube container with giant black tinkling ting. It is topped by a neon green plastic squeeze toy what one. she said is called "Hair Balls." The end result does suggest native plant life, in a quirky kind of way.
Cathy Nelson’s entry is stylistically at the opposite end of the spectrum, a pleasing arrangement of roadside wildflowers like Prairie Sun rudbeckia, Queen Anne’s lace and peony leaves, with a large piece of driftwood in the foreground.
The wall niches, religious designs, are titled "Walbridge 1874 - Union Church established." Williams, another time the winner, arranges stargazer lilies with an upright palm sprig against a statue of Mary holding the child Jesus, and wearing a lavender cap that matches the lilies.
Sue Facer’s red and fulvid chrysanthemums, gaillardia, millet seed pod, red berry viburnum, Russian sage and yew create the effect of a floral church, through a trivial made of wood church steeple at the top of the arrangement.
Best of show winner among the juniors is Jody Paridon of Bowling Green, who depicts "Lemoyne 1877" with Queen Anne’s lace, thistle, horsetail, purple cone flower and corus magenta against a huge unpliant wagon wheel.
Winning best of show in the intermediate level is Laura Nelson for "Bloomdale 1878." Turns through, that’s the year the Bloomdale Derrick newspaper was established, so she included rolled up newspaper pages in her arrangement of French Vanilla marigolds.
Senior best of show goes to Williams for her interpretation of "North Baltimore 1875 - Oil Wells" end a gerbera daisy, palm-tree leaf and black runged triangular prop.
Dorothy Cromley won horticulture best of show despite her "erotic tropecal" orchid, with amazing trailing white blooms with purple centers.
Don’t forget to visit the miniature arrangements. Karen Sue Roth, Fostoria, and two other exhibitors depict "Bloom Township 1835," the year saw mills were built, by incorporating a saw blade in the pygmy arrangement. Hers is almost hidden among the dock, golden and white mums and daisies.
This chief show of the fair will remain on view until Thursday obscurity, with the second show opening to the of the whole not private at 5 p.m. Friday.