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She goes the distance for mum show

Portland grower wins top honors in Sacramento

Mums on display
Mums fill Shepard Center during 73rd Sacramento Chrysanthemum Show. (Photos: Debbie Arrington)



Three apricot colored mums
Tamara Bliley's trio of Peach Courtier's mums
took Queen of Show honors.

Some people will go to great lengths for their flowers. For Tamara Bliley, that commitment paid off.

With fragile cargo, Bliley drove nearly 600 miles to enter her mums in the 73rd annual Sacramento Chrysanthemum Show. She took home best in show.

Her trio of perfectly matched Peach Courtier reflex mums wowed the judges and earned top honors, Queen of Show.

President of the Portland Chrysanthemum Society, Bliley entered 65 mums in the Sacramento show, which was open to all comers. Held at Shepard Garden and Arts Center on Nov. 7 and 8, the show attracted entries from throughout California as well as Oregon.

What’s even more impressive, Bliley also won best in show honors the weekend before at Portland’s annual show. She lives and gardens in Oregon City, Ore., 15 miles southeast of Portland.

Flower arrangement
Pat Gaston won a trophy for this spectacular arrangement.

“She actually entered more flowers in our show than her own,” said Sharon Peterson of the Sacramento Chrysanthemum Society.

The first major flower show in Sacramento since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in mid-March, the mum show filled Shepard Center with hundreds of exhibition blooms. Members of the Sacramento Floral Design Guild also participated with several spectacular arrangements.

Obeying pandemic guidelines, patrons wore face masks and kept socially distanced, Peterson said.

In all, about 20 mum growers exhibited blooms. Several flower arrangers also participated.

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Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3

November still offers good weather for fall planting:

* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.

* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.

* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.

* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.

* Plant garlic and onions.

* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.

* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.

* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.

* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.

* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.

* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.

* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.

* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.

* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.

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