Art in Bloom

The Boone County 4-H Floral Design Club began in October 2021 with two volunteers interested in teaching children how to work with cut flowers.   The two volunteers are currently Master Gardener Volunteers that assist with growing a cut flower garden at the Boone County Nature Center Demonstration Gardens.

As the club began, six participants showed and learned how to arrange flowers for the very first time.   Three months the club grew to fifteen participants, the volunteers explored the idea of the children participating in Art in Bloom at the Cincinnati Museum Center.

Art in Bloom is weekend event, usually around Mother’s Day. Famous artwork is recreated by in floral arrangements. Part of the guidelines for arrangement is all flowers must be real, no dried, no spray-painted flowers, and arrangements must be in a ceramic container or vase. It was an honor that the Boone County 4-H Garden Club was able to enter the Art in Bloom contest at the Cincinnati Art Museum.

Once the artwork was assigned to the Boone County 4-H Floral Club,  began creating a plan for their arrangement; learning which flowers to use, how they were going to display and depict colors from the picture, and figure out how they were going to create a fly out of living material. It took the club four months to prepare for the outcome. We had nine 4-H Floral Club members, two Master Gardener volunteers which lead the club, and 4-H Agent Gina Ligon assisted in creating an incredible arrangement based on Johann Wilhelm Preyer's piece titled “Fruit”. 

The volunteers did and amazing job teaching the children skills they could use in the green or floral industry if they decide to pursue a career in the future, the children had to work as a team in decision-making, building patience in waiting to complete their piece of the puzzle, learning about the artist, and everyone had a leadership role when it came to their portion of creating the floral arrangement.

The club members felt it was an honor for their floral design to be displayed in front of thousands of people for one weekend at the Cincinnati Art Museum. Many of the club members went to see their arrangement on display and it was also their first time going to art museum.  The educational knowledge, team building, and patience building was amazingly displayed by all involved in creating the “Fruit” floral arrangement.