Organizers of the Poway Valley Garden Club Flower Show and Plant Sale on Saturday were impressed with the 290 horticultural and two educational exhibit entries as well as the customer turnout.
One of the top prize winners in the 46th annual Flower Show at Old Poway Park was Colleen Michell, who received the Award of Horticultural Excellence for being the highest scoring blue ribbon winner in the Horticulture Division.
Michell also won the Mary Sokach Memorial Award for having the best rose grown by a Poway Valley Garden Club member.
She has won the Mary Sokach award three times — in 2000, 2012 and 2025. Her husband, Ed, also won the award with the same type of rose in 2022.
Michell also won an Award of Merit for her roses, which were picked from her garden in Poway that has about 20 rose bushes.
“When I bought my house 40 years ago the former owner was a big rosarian and I inherited her garden,” she said. “Since then I’ve had roses, roses, roses.”
Another top prize winner was Olga Stewart, who won a Sweepstakes Award and the Century 21 Tres Rancho Horticulture Trophy for having the greatest number of blue ribbons in the Horticulture Division.
Stewart also won a Grower’s Choice Award for her orchid, Oncidium McLea Golden Gouble.
Garden Club member Melissa Richardson was one of several Award of Merit winners who excelled in the Cut Stem Flowers category. Richardson won the prize for a pink cosmos she grew from seeds.
“I grew it for my daughter, Erica,” Richardson said of the 17-year-old who lives with her in Scripps Ranch. “She wanted to look at something pretty outside her window so I planted this in a wildflower garden.”
Richardson also won an Award of Merit in the Flowering Herbaceous Perennials category for her purple lupine, which she grew from seeds in her front yard.
Sharon Tooley and Roy Wilburn won Award of Merits, and Faye Matthew won an Arboreal Award. The Educational Top Exhibitor Award went to the Kumeyaay-Ipai Interpretive Center for having the highest-scoring Educational Exhibit.
Ann Dahnke, co-chair of the Plant Sale portion of the event, said their offerings included succulents, perennials, natives, landscaping plants, small trees, plumeria and houseplants. Customers crowded under the park’s gazebo early in the morning to get the best selection, she said.
“Anything you can imagine we’re selling it,” Dahnke said, adding that the succulent dish gardens and birdhouses are always popular among customers. “All the plant material was propagated by our own so they will thrive in Poway gardens.”
