Oxford Garden Club Floral Show Draws 300 Visitors to Conference Center

Brynnen Quick claimed the Award of Design Excellence at the Oxford Garden Club's "'Round About Oxford" flower show, the club's first such event in recent memory, which drew more than 300 visitors to the Oxford Conference Center on March 25.

The show broke sharply from the format most people associate with garden club events. Rather than members arranging flowers in matching vases, the "'Round About Oxford" show highlighted creative floral design techniques across a wide range of containers and styles. Club members spent months studying tubular, petite, multi-rhythmic and parallel arrangement techniques before competing, and the results spread across themed sections named "On and Off the Square," "The Little Easy" for petite designs, and "The Culinary Scene," where entrants built arrangements around breakfast trays and dinner settings.

Cindy Kirk swept "The Culinary Scene," earning the Table Artistry Award for the section and first place in the "Savor Every Bite" class. Kirk, who serves as director of the Tombigbee Valley District of The Garden Clubs of Mississippi, brought competitive credentials that raised the bar across the room.

The educational exhibit, titled "Rounding Out Nature's Best," also drew attention and a blue ribbon. Julie Montgomery and Sallie VanDevender created the display around the theme "Why Parks are Important," spotlighting Oxford's own Lamar and Avent Parks as case studies in the value of green space. Judges accredited by the National Garden Clubs evaluated all entries, with blue ribbons for first place, red for second, yellow for third, and white for honorable mention.

One of the afternoon's more memorable moments came from Marge McCauley, a club member of 23 years, who portrayed William Faulkner seated on his bench on Oxford's Square. Visitors could view the scene and get their picture taken with "Faulkner" as part of the show's Oxford-specific theme, a touch that gave the event a distinctly local character no visiting garden club could replicate.

The Oxford Garden Club, now more than 20 years in operation, maintains gardens at the Oxford Museum and Library, runs a community vegetable garden that donates produce to a local food pantry, and provides floral arrangements for Oxford's Fine Arts Fair at the Oxford Community Center each spring. The Conference Center showing served as both a public showcase for that work and a natural entry point for anyone curious about the craft. The next step for interested gardeners is straightforward: the club holds free public lectures on horticulture throughout the year.