Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Defying the January temperatures around it, a colourful tulip rises above the garden at the corner of Palace Road and Hwy 2, next to Greater Napanee’s skate park.
This tri-coloured flower is the work of local barn quilt artist Pat Dubyk, who in partnership with Communities In Bloom, had the art display affixed above an adopted garden that is looked after by volunteers Jane Gordon and Marj Findlay.
A growing trend in the rural art community, barn quilts are not blankets but instead a geometric straight line design, typically found as an outdoor display. They originate from the 1820s when Pennsylvania Dutch farmers displayed stars or hex symbols on their barns.
The petals of Dubyk’s flower design are red to symbolize 2022’s Year of the Garden theme, orange in favour of 2020’s 75th anniversary of Holland’s liberation and yellow to match the Town of Greater Napanee’s Hope is growing theme of 2021.
“The tulip is very appropriate because many of our adoptive gardens have tulip displays,” explained Kathy Medd of Greater Napanee’s Community In Bloom. “In particular Communities In Bloom is working with the Canadian National Landscape Association, along with other garden orientated groups to celebrate 2022 as the Year of the Garden. Communities right across Canada are participating and one of the ways they are doing that is planting their gardens with a red theme.”
Dubyk, who first visited Greater Napanee as a judge for the Canadian Communities In Bloom competition before ultimately relocating to live in town, has created similar barn quilt displays throughout town. She has since established the Greater Napanee Area Barn Quilt Trails, which currently features about 12 displays throughout the municipality.
“I’ve got a few more proposals that I’d like to run by them and maybe get a few more out there, maybe through Communities In Bloom,” added Dubyk.