The Bradner Community Club holds its 91st annual Bradner Flower Show from Friday to Sunday (April 12 to 14) in Abbotsford.
The event takes place at Bradner Hall (5305 Bradner Rd.), with opening ceremonies on Friday at 2 p.m. with Global TV’s Kasia Bodurka.
This year’s show will celebrate “The Art of Nature.” There will be hundreds of daffodils on display, as well as arts, crafts, music and presentations by gardening experts.
The show is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Admission is $2 and, as always, all funds from the sale of cut flowers will be donated to the Abbotsford Regional Hospital.
The tea room will be open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the weekend, with homemade soup, sandwiches, hot dogs and baking available.
Fenwick Fatkin started the Bradner Flower Show in 1928, holding it in his living room – or parlour, as it was then called.
It was modelled after the popular parlour shows that were held in his native England.
When the show was in its beginnings, there were only 10 types of daffodils on display. Today, there are more than 400.
When Fenwick and Charlotte Fatkin moved to the Bradner area from England via Vancouver, he recognized right away that the area’s climate and soil would be perfect for growing daffodils.
Members of the Fatkin family still farm daffodils in Bradner and still actively volunteer at the show. Pauline Isherwood (nee Fatkin), granddaughter of Fenwick, is the show’s chairperson.