Leading floral designers in North and South Carolina will showcase their floral creations inspired by fine art, January 7-10, 2021 .

The four-day Art & The Bloom exhibition and competition includes expert demonstrations and workshops in floral design, botanical illustration and art, jewelry fashion shows, gallery art sales by the Wilmington Art Association, and a horticultural presentation by Frank Hyman, renowned gardening lecturer and author, entitled “Orange You Glad You Grow Citrus.”

The New Hanover Garden Club and Blockade Runner Beach Resort will focus on public safety during the event. Measures include following the Governor’s guidelines to help prevent the spread of COVID 19 , including temperature checks upon entering the resort, wearing of masks in public areas, limiting numbers of tickets, encouraging social distancing, and hand sanitizers offered in public places. In the event of cancellation due to increased COVID restrictions, tickets will be refundable.

Now entering its fourth year, the New Hanover Garden Club’s Art & The Bloom has become a highly anticipated event. This year’s artwork will come from private collections and the Wilmington Art Association. Floral designers receive their art assignment from a blind draw weeks before the event.

Judging this year is National Garden Club judge and Flower Show School Instructor Claudia Bates, as well as NC State Floral Association judge and instructor Tammy Yow Russell. Floral design winners receive a beautiful ribbon, a cash award, and bragging rights. The judges will be presenting floral design demonstrations and workshops.

Patricia Savage, a renowned botanical illustrator from Chapel Hill, will present a workshop entitled “The Language of Flowers.” Savage teaches botanical art and illustration at the UNC Botanical Gardens. She has also taught at the NC Museum of Natural Science and the NC Museum of Art. The workshop will explore the evolution of a single species over time and include painting petals using the dry brush watercolor technique.

Tammy Yow Russell will conduct a workshop on Miniature Floral Design, exploring the fascinating world of working with miniatures using combinations of ordinary and unusual natural materials to create tiny works of art. Her second workshop will feature wearable flowers, making flower crowns and unique flower accessories. Russell is a multi-award-winning designer, including NC State Designer of the Year, Greensboro Triad Designer of the Year, Northern Piedmont Designer of the Year, and Southern Retail Designer of the Year in 2000. She is a three-time winner of the prestigious interpretive design NC Jim Treadaway Cup competition and was the second woman ever inducted into the NC Jim Treadaway Cup Hall of Fame in 2017. She has won many awards in her favorite design competition, Miniature Design, since 1994, and served as President of the Greensboro Triad Professional Florists Association in 2018, and as a director on the Board for the NC State Florists Association 2016 through 2019.

Claudia Bates, a National Garden Club Flower Show School Design Instructor, will demonstrate abstracted […]