ELKO COUNTY FAIR HOME ARTS 2025 FLOWER DIVISION

Spotlight on Amber Manzo Huff and Moira Smith/Chris Towne

Submitted by Susanne Kaime Reese & Moira Smith, Nevada Wild Art Exhibits

Amber Manzo Huff

If you’ve visited the Elko County Fair Flower Show or dropped off flowers or arrangements for competition in the last several years, you’ve probably encountered Amber Manzo Huff.  The 38-year-old Systems Advocate for the Elko Police Department and married mother of 6-year-old Zinnia has been the superintendent of the Flower Department and the president of the Elko Garden Club since 2022 and is passionate about it!

Amber was born and raised in Winnemucca and attended university in Reno before taking a long detour to Ohio.  When she and her husband returned to Nevada in 2018, they bought a home in the Hamilton Stage neighborhood in Elko.  It had no landscaping at all, and Amber, missing the lush greenery in Ohio, set to work to bring the gardens and trees of Ohio to her home in Elko.  When everything she tried to grow “died or blew away,” she went looking for a community and knowledge about gardening in Elko’s harsh, high desert climate. She found it in the Elko Garden Club, one of the main supporters of the Flower Show at the Fair.  She was overcome with how generous everyone was with their time and knowledge, not to mention their willingness to share plants with her that thrive in the local climate.  “My garden is an amalgamation of plants from everyone in the club. When I look at it I think of everyone in the garden club who helped me along the way. And each plant has a unique origin story”. 

Amber first visited the Elko County Fair in 2019. She knew she wanted to be a part of it and jumped in with both feet!  Her favorite part of her role as superintendent of the Flower Department is overseeing all the entries that come in the door for judging and seeing what masterpieces in floral design have been created through the efforts of Elko County gardeners.  She also enjoys seeing how the Artistic Arrangement themes have been interpreted in each flower arrangement.  

Her role as superintendent is not without worry.  Recent years have seen a decline in the number of entries in the Flower show.  She suspects that some of it might be due to recent years with hot, dry summers and waves of Mormon crickets, the fair coinciding with the busy back-to-school week, and busier lifestyles in general.  But while there are things she can’t change, she is instead focused on raising awareness of the fair entry process, bringing back indoor houseplants to enter, and getting the word out to schools, etc. to get kids interested in competing.  Her own daughter, Zinnia, has won several cash prizes, and while Amber likes to encourage and nurture her talents and interests, she stresses that Zinnia still has to do it all herself!

Amber is also gifted at sewing and enters her work at the fair and sells her signature vintage jean jackets with lace cut-outs at the Elko Art Club Store.  With sewing, as with gardening, part of the joy for her is being able to see the progression from a pattern, or a bare patch of ground, through the creative process, to a finished article of clothing or a garden or floral arrangement at the end.

Amber digging up plants for the Elko Garden Club plant sale.

Amber and Zinnia showing off their prize-winning entries in the Flower Show.

Moira Smith and Chris Towne

If you’ve toured the Home Arts barns at the fair in recent years, you’ve probably seen some of Moira Smith’s contributions, as she’s been a rather prolific contributor to the Home Arts show for over 10 years, in the Flowers, Plants, Fine Arts, Canning, Photography and Hobbies and Crafts Departments.  

Moira, an economic geologist who moved to Spring Creek from Vancouver, B.C. in 2006 was, like Amber, eager to transform her patch of sagebrush into a cottage garden that resembled home.  She and her partner, Dan Harmening, spent many years fencing their property, building retaining walls, and planting hundreds of trees and bushes.  Along the way, Moira learned through trial and error that some things grew and others didn’t and saves the high maintenance plants for a small number of pots and raised beds.  

Moira entered the Flower Division at the fair for the first time in 2012, and in 2013, her mother, Chris Towne, happened to be visiting from Seattle.  Chris is passionate about art and gardening, and after moving into a condo, indulged her love of gardening by supporting public and private gardens around Seattle and providing fresh flower arrangements for the lobby of her condo building.  With Moira supplying the plant material and vases and arranging the flowers, and Chris providing creative input, they churned out up to a dozen flower arrangements for the fair from 2013 through 2019.  It became an annual event with Wednesdays spent cruising the backroads for plant material, perusing the garden, searching antique stores for new vases and brainstorming the various flower arranging themes to make a plan. Thursdays were spent in an all-out arranging sprint and delivering the flowers to the fair at the last possible minute.  Fridays were spent drinking coffee and cooking a leisurely brunch to kill time before the fair Home Arts building opened at 1pm.  

Due to health reasons, Covid and other factors, Chris’ last visit to the fair was in 2019.  Since then, Moira has kept her in the loop in the creative process through discussions of the artistic arrangement themes and frequent photo tours so Chris can see what’s blooming in the lead-up to the fair, and a virtual tour of Moira’s finished flower creations.  “Mom might not physically be able to make the trip anymore, but she is always going to be looking over my shoulder and telling me to cut this branch or tilt it a little that way or how about doing something with this flower.” said Moira.  “She is so much a part of it that when Covid shut the fair down in 2020, I did all the flower arrangements anyway, made a photo book, and sent it to her.”

Moira’s least favorite part of the process is boxing everything up and driving it to the fairgrounds.  “I swear, you can feel every bump in the road when you have a car full of incredibly fragile flowers”.  And her favorite part? “Wheeling up to the flower barn, all the hard work done, and seeing the smiles on the faces of the folks checking things in. It’s usually at the latest possible moment, but they are always happy to see me.”

Moira and Chris showing off one of their entries at the Flower Show.

Moira in her garden of inspiration.

Chris in her garden of inspiration (Seattle).

Arrangement using bright colors

Arrangement in a coffee cup

Arrangement using no flowers

Ikebana themed arrangement

Arrangement with a Victorian theme