At Plant and Garden Expo 2017

Oregon Koi and watergarden society had a booth at the Master gardeners plant and garden expo May 6th at the fairgrounds in Roseburg. Members came the night before to set up the booth and decorate with pictures of ponds and fish from shows. The club got bog plants from a wholesaler, with the help of Bill Harper and Kim Brock. The plant sales was to get people that might have water gardens or ponds to stop by to let them know about the club and up and coming events, like our koi expo we were having the next month. We sold a few plants and met a few people that was interested in the club. Oregon Koi and Watergarden Society fliers were handed out and water garden plant info sheets with the plants that were sold. Everyone that helped out had lots of fun talking with the public and other members that showed up.

Participates in Garden Expo 2017
Wonderful Posters and Informational Cards

The Garden Expo is put on annually by The Inland Empire Gardeners. It has grown from 90 garden-related vendors and 2,000 people attending in 2000 to 350 garden-related vendors and over 25,000 people attending in 2017. Many of these people come to our booth each year to ask pond related questions, including how to care for plants and what type of plants to put in their water gardens, problems they are having with their ponds, advice on the fish they have, both koi and goldfish. Our club members relish in helping these people.
Linda Seifert of our club put together wonderful posters and information cards for each plant. The information cards are made of water-proof paper, full color pictures of the type of flowers, and information on that plant easy to read and readily available for the customers to be able to see. Many people come to our booth to learn about the plants and be directed on what types of plants we have and that would look good in their ponds.

Informational Cards in each type of plant:

Linda Seifert also put together a poster of the same information on each of the plants as well as our water lilys that are available. These colorful posters help attract people to our booth where they are assisted and given a weath of information regarding ponds and koi. Each year people come back with their current concerns and to fill in their water gardens with new plants we may have available. Both the posters and the information signs help not only the customers but the members that are helping out in the booth. It helps that the Members can give out accurate information and recommendations to those that attend.

Left: On the column is one of the Informational Poster with the Water Lily's Available. Hard at work are (R to L): Colleen McCalip, John Seifert, Linda Seifert, and Jackie Kabrell.

Left: Here is an example of one of the "Informational Card" that we stick in the plant. Linda Seifert puts many hours into preparing these posters (I think she made 8 posters in 2017) and informational cards (out of water proof paper for each variety of plant we had). This is so much appreciated and has really helped enhanced our sales in 2017 and made our booth the best, both for our Club and the public! We thank her so much for the work she did for the Garden Expo in 2017 (and many other years). We look forward to the next Garden Expo in 2018 and thank all our Members for participating!

On September 4, 2017 the Idaho Water Garden and Koi Society presented a booth at the annual Japan Days event located in downtown Boise on the historic Basque Block. The entire street was blocked off and vendors with Japanese goods and foods filled the area. Inside there were dancers, singers and drummers. Outside there was great snacks, interactive games and a display by the IWGKS. Members set up an eye-catching booth featuring koinobori, large koi sculptures and of course, live fish. People from all ages flocked to the booth to learn more about koi and the club. Many membership forms were handed out and future members contacted. The event continues to improve yearly with more attendance and more vendors each year.

Northwest Koi & Goldfish Club

2017 Camilla Festival
April 8th 2017
Newburg, Oregon

Club Members Karen and Linda

The Northwest Koi and Goldfish Club joined others on Saturday April 8th, 2017 at the 2017 Camilla Festival in Newburg, Oregon.
This was our 3rd year at the show, sharing the joys of koi keeping, and what we do as a club in educating our members, and promoting the hobby overall. There was a Camellia competition, Taiko drummers, karate demos, hula dancers and plants for sale as well as many other exhibits. There was even a run in the morning for those that felt so inclined.

Linda Montgomery gave a great presentation, this year covering pond design and construction.

The club set up a 6' show so we could share the beauty of our koi with the visitors to the show in person. This was a big hit with all those that visited our booth.

Information about koi keeping and applications to join the club were available as well. We even had two new members join!!

The grant from the PNKCA allows us to continue to reach out, promoting koi keeping, and sharing our love of the hobby.