Extension Homemakers Showing Well at the Fair

Look around at activities that Hamilton County Extension Homemakers are doing and you find them helping others, striving onward and upward and making home life lovely.

Every year at the Hamilton County 4-H Fair — which this year runs through Monday — the Extension Homemakers have their own Extension Homemakers’ Flower Show exhibit.

I stopped in at the Homemakers’ Flower Show just after judging on Thursday.

I must admit I wouldn’t want to be a judge, because I always think all of the flowers on exhibit are all beautiful.

This year, the overall theme was “Garden Pollinators,” with three divisions, Horticulture, Artistic and Houseplants, but not an overall grand champion of all entries and divisions. Flower show entries are by club, not by individuals.

At this year’s 4-H Fair, the North Adams Extension Homemakers Club based in Sheridan — one of 10 Extension Homemaker clubs in Hamilton County — won Grand Champion in the Horticulture division, shown in the “variety” category.

Judy Langdon, 70, Sheridan — a member of the North Adams Extension Homemakers and 10-year 4-H’er from Allen County — held up her club’s winning entry which featured three very different flowers, an “excellent use of natives and bright colors,” according to the judge’s written comments.

“This is hard because, it’s three varieties of bloom, your choice, and what goes together to make that a pleasing arrangement,” she said. “We have a spike flower here, we have a round thick flower here and a sparkly flower here. It was pleasing to the judge’s eye.”

The judge’s feedback on the scorecard read, “I gave this one a grand champion because it not only is excellent in color use, healthy … and also because it is a wonderful example of our pollinators. Great job,” she said.

In 2021 and 2022, for the first time, Hamilton County Master Gardeners judged the entries, looking at presentation as well as “standard” for the Horticulture division. (In years past, Extension Homemakers had used out-of-county judges. “We didn’t have any money to pay judges last year for the flower show, so that’s when we asked our Master Gardeners, to help us out, because they don’t get paid, they earn hours,” Langdon said. How did it work? “Wonderful,” she said.

So what is it that the judges are looking for that makes these flower displays over-the-top champions?

The Horticulture category judging, for instance, was based on whether the shape and size of flowers are typical for the variety; flowers are clean and fresh and free of pollen; stems are straight, clean and undamaged; leaves are clean, healthy and undamaged, according to a judges’ scorecard attached to the entry.

In the Artistic category, it was about “how do they interpret the category and how do they arrange flowers to interpret the category,” Langdon said.

Using the theme of “Garden Pollinators,” there are bats, birds, butterflies and small bugs categories.

North Adams Extension Homemakers Club actually chaired, or organized, this year’s flower show. “We’re just a group of willing ladies who can chair it,” Langdon said.

“I love it,” she said. “Getting together, we have two committee meetings and that report has to be turned in by Dec. 31 … Just the collaboration and teamwork to come up with a new theme each year and the new subthemes.”

Other ladies from other Extension Homemakers also help.

One word that describes why the flower show is a perfect activity for Extension Homemakers?

“Opportunity,” Langdon said. “It gives them a chance to take their hobby or their passion and put it on display and see how they did.”

She said, “Flowers make people happy.”

“Last year we had 77 entries and this year, we had 91. That is awesome,” she said.

The Extension Homemakers’ Flower Show Exhibit is open for viewing through 6 p.m. Monday at the Hamilton County 4-H Fair at the Hamilton County Exhibition Center at the 4-H Fairgrounds, 2003 E. Pleasant St., Noblesville.

Also, Extension Homemakers Used Book Sale is open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. today and Sunday, and 10 a.m. to noon Monday in the Exhibition Center.

Public viewing of Extension Homemakers’ Foods & Crafts (open to public) is noon to 9 p.m. today, continuing through 6 p.m. Monday.

Hamilton County Extension Homemakers in their dining room at the 4-H Fair will offer daily hot specials: today, meatloaf; Sunday, beef and noodles; with other food available daily through Monday, including breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Seeing all of the activities of the Extension Homemakers, Langdon said, “We hope that it encourages other people to come and see what we have and then encourages them to plant … That’s the real reason we chose the theme that we did this year.”

(Indiana Extension Homemakers Association was founded 109 years ago, in 1913, and Extension Homemakers are all about strengthening homes and families.)

As the county Extension Homemaker membership grows older, there is a need for younger members.

Langdon said she hopes Extension Homemakers being visible at the 4-H Fair will attract new members. Their door is always open.

Membership is $13 yearly. To join Extension Homemakers or to learn about local clubs in your area, email Bernie Huber at bchuber@purdue.edu

Contact Betsy Reason at betsy@thetimes24-7.com.