Church flowers on display cast out winter doldrums at annual festival

The smell of camellias, lilies, roses and other blooms wafted throughout the sanctuary of Macon's St. Joseph Catholic Church on Sunday.

Between services, visitors from different denominations browsed past about two dozen flower arrangements decorating the worship space.

Many folks chose a pew and took a few minutes to sit and gaze around before venturing back out into the cold.

Inside the church, it appeared as if spring had come early with the bright colors and delicate flowers of the fifth annual Old City Flower Festival.

Sixteen churches contributed arrangements to the event, which coincides with the week of prayer for Christian unity that's celebrated worldwide, festival co-chairman Elaine Schmitt said.

Schmitt and Steve Gonser founded the festival after attending an event in Savannah.

In presenting the idea of a Macon festival, Schmitt said they figured, "If there's anything that Macon loves, it's their churches and their flowers."

"It's something that we all love, God, and we all love flowers," she said.

While many of the flowers on display were purchased from wholesalers, some were plucked from local gardens, Schmitt said.

"It's neat for people to use things out of their yards because we can all see that it's possible to do this," she said. "It's not a dead time of year. There's a lot that's alive out there."

For the first time, this year's festival also featured a demonstration and church flowers workshop hosted by an Atlanta florist, Schmitt said.

The free event, which continues through Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, is becoming a tradition, she said.

"People really look forward to it every year," Schmitt said. "People tell me, 'it gets me out of my doldrums in January.'"

One of the first visitors to arrive Sunday was Becky Bowdre, a resident of Macon's Carlyle Place senior living community and a longtime garden club member.

She said she attended the first festival and enjoyed it so much she knew she'd come again.

A Baptist, Bowdre said she thinks St. Joseph is a beautiful church.

"I love to come in and see it," she said.

Bobbie Jo Carver of Lizella said, "it's always such a beautiful show and it's nice to see all the talents of all the churches in Macon and come together in unity."

Schmitt stood at the back of the church, answering visitors questions for a while Sunday.

She said visitors often ask if churches get together to coordinate their arrangements, like the orange spider lilies situated just a few feet in front of another arrangement of red, orange and gold flowers on the high altar donated by another church.

"God does that for us," she said.

Information from Telegraph archives was used in this story. To contact writer Amy Leigh Womack, call 744-4398 or find her on Twitter@awomackmacon.

This story was originally published January 17, 2016 at 7:54 PM with the headline "Church flowers on display cast out winter doldrums at annual festival ."