The Yorkton and District Horticultural Society held their annual general meeting on Wednesday, November 24. It was a busy, fun evening! We enjoyed a delicious turkey supper, had our meeting, and enjoyed a live auction with our enthusiastic auctioneer Larry Off. Next, we took an armchair vacation to breathtaking Hawaii with our tour guides, Vicki and John Ostrowercha. It was delightful to see the beauty of such a tropical paradise!
This meeting was the last one for 2010; thank you to everyone for making the meeting such a success: to our president, Liz Jones, for organizing the whole event, it was a great evening; to Larry Off, who put a fun spin on our auction activity; to everyone who donated items to the silent auction, they were all exciting treasures; to Vicki and John Ostrowercha for their excellent presentation on Hawaii, it made us forget the cold for a little while; to everyone who attended the meeting and brought along their sunny enthusiasm on such a chilly, blustery night; and to the staff at St. Mary's Cultural Centre for a fine meal. The whole evening was a wonderful closing to a great year!
The other day, I was thumbing through a decorating magazine, and saw a beautiful flower arrangement done in blue and white flowers. The little description said that the bouquet was for Hanukkah celebrations. Hanukkah begins on December 2 this year. It is called "The Festival of Lights", and celebrates the miracle of the oil. During Hanukkah, gifts are exchanged on each of the eight days of the festival, and upon doing some research, I learned that Hanukkah flowers and baskets are often given to loved ones.
Blue and white are the colors of Hanukkah; these colors make a beautiful, crisp color combination for a flower arrangement. I read that the most popular flowers for a Hanukkah bouquet are mums, hydrangeas, lilies, white roses, and roses that have been dyed blue. Do you remember that great gardening program that was on TV several years ago, "Canadian Gardener"? The host was David Tarrant, and if you followed the show on a regular basis, you'll remember that blue was David's favorite color, and he often lamented that there are very few true blue flowers. There are many shades of purple-blue, but very few that were actually blue. If you think about it, this is very true. There are delphiniums, bachelor buttons, lobelia but I think we'd have to give the matter some serious consideration to think of a few more.
Whether you know of someone who celebrates Hanukkah or not, the blue and white color combination is a beautiful look that we should file away in our "flower arranging folder" and keep in mind for next year. It's very fresh and clean looking! It's like a sunny, breezy summer day! Since we won't see any of those for a while, maybe we can compare it to a sunny, sparkling winter day instead!
Have a good week; if you took any garden photos over the summer, why not take some time and put them into a little pocket photo album: it will make the season last a little longer!
