Big top comes to Hall of Flowers at this year’s Sonoma County Fair

The Hall of Flowers has been transformed into a fanciful and fragrant Cirque des Fleurs for the Sonoma County Fair opening on Thursday.

Visitors will behold a high-diving hippo, a 30 foot tall two-headed giraffe ringmaster and a tightrope cycling clown set amid a riot of colorful flowers tightly packed into eight professionally designed display gardens.

The “Greatest Fair on Earth” theme this year plays out in the hall with a huge mural of a circus train filled not with animals but flowers and oversized circus props.

For the first time in years the Santa Rosa Men’s Garden Club will not be competing with a show garden although they will be selling plants they grew in the Garden Courtyard just outside the hall. The six professional exhibitors include Steven Rogina, Debbie and Marty Thorsson, Michael Golas, Elena Canett and Tiffany Thorsson, who each have taken a space with a set theme: Acrobat Alley, Balancing Blossoms, Under the Big Top, Ringmaster Rendezvous, High-Wire high jinks, Tumbling Territory and Contortionist Corner. Show garden creators compete for rosettes and cash prizes, which help to offset the cost of materials.

The “Cirque des Fleurs” theme will carry on into the Garden Courtyard, where junior and amateur gardeners compete for honors with smaller display gardens.

After strolling the “big top” hall visitors can stop for refreshments at Krazy Kevin’s Kocktail Korner in a corner of the hall. In addition to wine and beer the watering hole will offer circus-themed drinks like cotton candy martinis and circus beer.

While the indoor display gardens are more fantasy and don’t approximate real gardening conditions, they are a chance to see beautiful plants in bloom, many of which will be for sale the day after the fair closes. The fair runs Aug. 1-11 with the hall plant blowout sale on Aug. 12.

The fair offers lots to pique the interest of garden lovers. In the courtyard there will be informational booths and displays from groups like the Sonoma County Beekeepers Association, the Sonoma County Master Gardeners and a low-water display garden by the Marin-Sonoma Saving Water Partnership.

Hall designer Greg Duncan said for the first time in a number of years The Garden Building next to the courtyard will be given over to gardening with floriculture and horticultural entries on display. It will be filled with cut flowers, flower arrangements, produce and potted plants.

The annual Hall of Flowers Preview Party where the public can get a sneak peak at the display gardens while sipping wine and nibbling hors d’oeuvres at their freshest will be Wednesday, July 31, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $50, with proceeds supporting scholarships for local students of agriculture. People must be 21 to attend.

For more information about the Hall of Flowers and the fair’s gardening attractions or to buy tickets for the preview visit sonomacountyfair.com/pages/the-flower-show.