The Dysart Garden Club’s ‘Blue Ribbon Flowers of the Month’ yard sign situated outside Penny Stoakes’ 1922 Colonial Revival home at 808 Connell Street last Thursday. Stoakes’ flowers were the club’s inaugural selection for the new blue ribbon designation. Look for the sign at a new home each month throughout the 2024 growing (blooming) season. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

DYSART – The Dysart Garden Club recently named Penny Stoakes’ colorful, abundant well-kept flowers as the club’s Blue Ribbon Flowers of the Month for June.

The monthly designation is a new undertaking of the local club which first started meeting in 2000.

“Everybody has a beautiful yard but we’re just doing the flowers,” Dysart Garden Club member Cheryl Raub told the paper last week. “[The club] will present a blue ribbon to flowers of the month throughout the summer. It’s something [fun] for our garden club to do.”

In terms of Stoakes’ selection as the inaugural blue ribbon recipient, Raub said the overall abundance of blooms planted in both beds and containers throughout the yard located at 808 Connell Street sets it apart.

“It’s all beautiful,” Raub explained. “She has a koi pond with flowers, hanging baskets, a huge wagon full of geraniums. She just loves to garden.”

The front entrance to Penny Stoakes’ home located at 808 Connell Street in Dysart pictured on Thursday, June 20. Stoakes’ flowers were recently designated ‘Flowers of the Month’ for June by the Dysart Garden Club. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

Stoakes’ Colonial Revival brick two-story built in 1922 provides the perfect backdrop for all those blooms, too. Between the white picket fence running along the front sidewalk and the stately front door, flowered plantings are mirrored along each side of the entrance path; a bird bath anchors the center ringed beneath with geraniums.

On the west side of the front yard, a massive antique cart painted a vibrant red overflows with different geranium varieties. To the east, a large flower bed featuring both perennials and annuals is present.

There are even more flowers to be seen in the back and side yards including around a tidy koi pond located in the southeast corner along the white privacy fence and detached garage.

Also in contention for this month’s blue ribbon designation, Raub said, was Valerie Raub’s flowers located at 601 Crisman Street just across the alley from the Methodist Church on the east side.

“Val didn’t get picked this month but she has some beautiful flowers in her yard, too.”

Colorful flowers bloom in Penny Stoakes’ Connell Street yard last week. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

The Dysart Garden Club meets at least once a month from May to September and would love new members, Cheryl Raub said.

“We do different things each month. This Friday [June 21] we’re going to the [Cedar Valley Arboretum and Botanic Gardens] up at Hawkeye (Community College). We go to different yards with flowers. Sometimes in the fall, we have [speakers].”

Those interested in joining the club are asked to contact either Cheryl Raub, Pat Hansen, or Jo Palmer, or send an email to the newspaper at news@northtamatelegraph.com to be put in touch with a Dysart Garden Club member.

But whether you’re of the ‘garden club’ variety or otherwise, be on the lookout throughout the 2024 growing season for that ‘Blue Ribbon Flowers of the Month’ sign popping up in a new spot – the chosen flowers could be yours!

PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER