If you're an omnihort like me (I just made that up - it means you're into every kind of plant) you don't have an allegiance to any one plant.

I'll never forget the time a friend of mine told me he was the president of the African violets club of Seattle. I said, "congrats!" while thinking, "They have a club for that?"

On the other hand how many of us have had that moment of joy when we discover a group exists for a particular passion of ours that we thought no one else shared?

If you're in to a particular type of flowering plant chances are there's a booth with like-minded volunteers waiting for you today at the show.

I was sucked in to the booth of the American Rhododendron Society, Tacoma Chapter, by their eye-popping display of rhody blossoms.

The blossom in the foreground of this photo I shot there is a cultivar called "Pt. Defiance" because the original bush grows in the park. Its descendants are sold in the trade with that name. Any Tacoman can feel proud over that.

Now, I'm just waiting for the Horsetail Hoarders of Hoquiam, The Dandelion Dames of Des Moines and the Bindweed Boys of Buckley to visit my garden.

They can have all the free plants they want.

A new booth is at the Pt. Defiance Flower and Garden Show this year.

Grow Local Tacoma is a coalition of the City of Tacoma, Tacoma Pierce County Health Department, Tagro, the Pierce Conservation District, and Exit133.

Formed just last year the group is dedicated to building community through community gardening.

At the booth this year you can make an edible plant container to take home. (The plants are edible, not the plastic container.) Volunteers like Will Leslie, left in the picture below, were helping show goers like Dorothea Richard of Tacoma fill pots with a variety of vegetable starts in Tagro potting soil.

Richard said she lives in a high rise condo but that wasn't going to stop her from being a vegetable gardener.

Looks like Grow Local Tacoma is accomplishing its mission.