A local flower shop recently competed in a floral competition at the Calgary Stampede and won an award.
According to Nikolle Grainger of Boy Oh Boy Flowers in Okotoks, they were one of ten competitors part of the Fleurs De Villes competition at the Stampede.
"We were invited by email to see if we wanted to apply and accepted the application," Grainger explains. "So, that was an amazing feat."
The Stampede had held the competition last year for the first time in many years, and Grainger says she didn't compete last year, but it was a dream of hers to go.
"I was like, I'm taking the day off and I'm going to see the mannequins. Really important to me. I want to see these amazing art installs. So, to get the invitation to do it was huge."
In order to be part of the competition, flower shops have to be nominated by flower wholesalers, who they feel will create something impressive.
Boy Oh Boy has been open for four years, and has been at their current location for the past year, but Nikolle's mother, Beth Grainger, has been in the flower business for 35 years.
30 of which she has been a Canadian-accredited Master Florist.
Nikolle had begun working with her mother, on and off, since she was 13, learning the trade.
"She's very good at what she does," Beth Grainger explains. "She's very good."
Both of them, along with Tiffany Farrer of Boy Oh Boy, worked on the piece that was entered into the competition.
As part of the competition, each competitor was given a female country musician to replicate using different flowers, and the Graingers were given Reba McEntire, which Beth Grainger said was a very hard design for a mannequin.
"You're given somebody with three or four pictures and you are to duplicate that as close as possible," Beth Grainger explains.
According to Beth, they were replicating Reba wearing a straight dress, which she says is much harder to do than a flared one.
Not only that, but they needed to use 40 per cent fresh flowers on the dress, and the only place where they could put them was on the bottom half of the skirt.
The rest of the skirt was made from pressed and dried florals.
"There was really not much choice," Beth says.
They estimate that it took them around 150 hours to complete this piece.
"It was a lot of detailed work," Nikolle says.
Once the prep work was done, they installed the piece in one day at the Stampede for the competition.
All of that work paid off, because they won the Most Creative award at the competition.
Not only that, but this is the first competition they have entered.
"It's a really good compliment, because we went through so many aspects of the detail," Nikolle said.
All of the pieces in the Fleurs De Villes competition will be on display at the Stampede until this Sunday (July 13), for everyone to enjoy.
To learn more about the competition and see photos of the displays, click here.