Mark your calendars for the first weekend of August, when a favorite High Country summer event takes place at Boone Mall. The Watauga Council of Garden Clubs will present “For the Birds,” a community flower show, on Friday, Aug. 4, and Saturday, Aug. 5.

Farmers and city-dwellers alike may enter their best garden blooms for award ribbons — everything from Astilbe to Zinnia. Horticulture categories are bulbs and bulb-like plants, annuals, culinary herbs, perennials, roses and flowering shrubs (in flower). In addition, a “combination planting” category applies to plantings of three or more species planted in a container not larger than 18 inches in width.

The 2006 flower show is dedicated to the memory of Peggy Mason, a member of the Gardenerettes Garden Club and a Master Flower Show Judge. She was chair of the county’s last flower show, in 2004.

Judging begins at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 4. There is no entry fee or admission charge for the show, which runs from noon to 9 p.m. on Friday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday.

Presented in affiliation with The Garden Club of North Carolina, Inc. and the National Garden Clubs, Inc., this “small standard flower show” is open to any resident of Watauga County who wishes to display blooms in the Horticulture division. The Design division is open only to Watauga Council garden club members.

Show organizers ask anyone who plans to exhibit floral blooms to stop by the gatehouse at the Daniel Boone Native Gardens to pick up entry forms. The gardens, located at 651 Horn in the West Dr. in Boone, are open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. The phone there is 264-6390.

Entry cards must be filled in, with pencil, before delivering plant material to the show. All entries are to be labeled by genus, species, and variety, if any. Cut specimens will be exhibited in clear, colorless glass containers provided by the exhibitor. All plant material must be fresh and grown by the exhibitor. Foliage must not extend below the water line, and wedging with clear plastic wrap is encouraged, to keep specimens upright.

For the container planting category, the exhibitor must have grown materials for the last six weeks, and the plantings should have similar soil and other requirements.

Horticulture entries must be delivered to the mall from 5 -8 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 3, and must be removed by 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 5, but not before 4 p.m. Design entries will only be received on Friday, Aug. 4, from 8-10 p.m. and should be removed on Saturday in the same manner as Horticulture.

In the design division, categories are “Stepping Out,” a functional buffet table; “Miles to Go,” a creative line design; “and “Wings of Change,” a creative design.

Call Ellen Gregory, 263-0610, with questions.