Throughout the ages art has been displayed in gardens. There seems to be a symbiotic relationship between the two.

The garden can be used to showcase sculpture while pieces of art can accent areas to which gardeners want to call attention. Whatever the reason is, they just seem to work well together.

For 12 years, artists have shown their creations in the horticultural gardens of Sandhills Community College. This year there were 30 entries by 14 different artists scattered throughout the gardens.

An awards ceremony was held the end of March as part of the Palustris Festival. The Best in Show was awarded to Tom Grubb for his piece called “Voyager.” First place went to Mike Roig for “What in the Whirled” and the second-place award went to Jeff Hackney for “Light Before Time.”

Judges for the event were Judy Broadhurst, who is a local art judge and owner of Broadhurst Gallery, and Judy Jones, owner of 311 Galleries and The Print Studio in Raleigh.

The show will end on May 26, and between now and then visitors to the SCC Horticultural Gardens will be asked to vote on the “People’s Choice” Award. The award will be presented at a reception to be held in the Ball Visitor Center of the SCC Horticultural Gardens on May 26 at 4 p.m.

Dee Johnson, who heads the landscape gardening department at SCC, feels that Art in the Gardens is a unique experience for visitors to the horticultural gardens.

“I’m very proud of this program,” says Johnson. “Not only does it give the visitors a new way to look at gardens, and how art can play a large role in enhancing one’s enjoyment of a garden, it gives both our art students and our landscape gardening students the opportunity to see how the two disciplines can work together.”

Peter Pottle, president of the Sandhills Horticultural Society, agrees.

“In addition to helping the students, it provides our organization another vehicle to allow us to reach our goals of providing horticultural education to the community and gain exposure for our beautiful SCC Horticultural Gardens,” he says. “We hope the people of the Sandhills will participate in the ‘People’s Choice’ award and join us on May 26 to meet the artists at the awards presentation.”