Binns wins state award for excellence in flower design
By Susan Nienow

Judy Binns received the National Garden Club's Member Award of Honor for the south Atlantic region last month.

Judy Binns knows flowers.

Last month, she was the recipient of the National Garden Club's Member Award of Honor for the south Atlantic region, which includes North and South Carolina, Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia.

The award recognizes Binns for her contributions to the community and the Salisbury Garden Club and for all around excellence over the past five years in floral design. The honor is given for outstanding contributions in one or more of the following areas: civic development, horticulture therapy, youth activities, conservation, landscape design, horticulture, floral design or all around excellence.

As one of eight regional winners in the country, she will receive a National Garden Club certificate and be mentioned in The National Gardener, the National Garden Club's quarterly publication.

An accredited flower show judge and floral design teacher, Binns often travels throughout the state to volunteer her expertise to other garden clubs. She tells her classes that "people will notice the color in an arrangement first, but the first thing to consider when making it is the line - how the eye will travel through the design."

"People are joining garden clubs to learn how to do floral designs for their own homes," she observed. "Arrangements used to be more creative [but those] are now seen mostly in flower shows."

It was 1990 when Binns first joined Salisbury Garden Club. A novice at floral design, she took basic floral design classes taught by other club members. "I learned by doing," she said. "I was garden club trained."

One volunteer job she enjoys because so many others can also enjoy the end product is providing the five-foot-tall floral arrangement for Chesterfield high school graduations at the Siegel Center. Fellow club member Dominique Spinos took on the job for the 2000 graduation when Midlothian High School held the first of the county's graduations at the center. Binns joined her, and now a committee of garden club members creates the arrangement each year and checks it every day for water.

Henrico, Hanover and New Kent counties, as well as ECPI, have asked Salisbury Garden Club to provide their arrangements for graduations as well. The counties and ECPI pay for the flowers and make a donation to the garden club that goes directly into the civic beautification fund. A recent recipient of this fund was the Midlothian Fire Department.

To hone her craft, Binns collects floral design books and still goes to lectures where, "I always learn something."

When she and her husband added on to their house, she had help with the landscaping. "I told [the landscaper] what shrubs I wanted and told him to make it look like landscaping."

She chose plants she can use in her arrangements such as Harry Lauder's walking stick, curly willow, poet's laurel, red twig dogwood, camellias, hostas and acuba. They are low maintenance as she doesn't have time to fuss with the plants.

"I love to use roses," but, she added, "I can't grow them successfully." Her yard is too shady for roses.

Binns just returned from a tour exploring England's history and gardens sponsored by the Virginia Federation of Garden Clubs. The feature event was a day at the Royal Horticulture Society's Hampton Court Flower Show.

"It was amazing. The floral displays were just unbelievable," said Binns.

For information on garden clubs visit www.virginiagardenclubs.org. There are 265 garden clubs in Virginia.