The Madras Garden Club provides volunteers to organize, decorate, accept entries, judge entries and keep the entries viable for the duration of the Jefferson County Fair each year. As this is quite a job and it takes all of the members to offer volunteer time to support this effort. The decorating committee along with the other members decide on a theme for the decorations in accordance with the theme of the fair.
Decorating is done the Monday before the opening day of the fair. The display stands are prepared and the walls are covered with flowers or theme related artifacts. This is a really fun time as our creative processes kick in. Once the decorating is completed, we prepare and fill hundreds of vases for the incoming entries. Tables are set up to provide space for arranging, submitting and displaying the flower entries.
Entries are accepted on Tuesday. Persons submitting entries bring their flowers to the area to arrange them in vases for showing. They then complete their entry tags and submit the entries to our staff. We classify and record the entries and sort and arrange them on our display stands by classifications. Entries are accepted all day until 7:00 pm. Judging of the entries is completed at that time by professional floral judges. Each entry is judged by its classification, appearance and quality. Children’s entries are judge with other children entries and etc. All entries are from amateur home gardeners. Ribbons are awarded for first, second and third place in each classification. Once all entries are judged all first, second and third place entries are reviewed to pick Best In the Show flowers.
