I did not go through hell to get to the Philadelphia Flower Show, but my faithful PFS companion and I went through every possible permutation of \u201cwintery mix\u201d to get home.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter; the trip was worth it.\u00a0 The flower show this year was big, bold and beautiful, not to mention being worth the wait after six weeks of snow, ice and arctic weather.<\/p>\n
The theme was \u201cCelebrate the Movies,\u201d with many of the display gardens themed to match Walt Disney and Pixar titles.\u00a0 The Disney\/Pixar angle had the potential to produce some cloying displays and I had imagined a flower show that would make me feel as if I were imprisoned inside a giant animation cel.\u00a0 Thankfully, that didn\u2019t happen.\u00a0 Yes, the display garden inspired by the \u201cSorcerer\u2019s Apprentice\u201d sequence from the 1940 animated classic, Fantasia<\/i>, featured mechanical dancing brooms, but the garden around it was beautiful.\u00a0 The big display gardens had more than enough charm, color and ingenuity to do great credit to Disney, Pixar and the whole world of movies.\u00a0 Purists and fusty garden snobs might quibble, but I thought the combination of horticultural virtuosity and popular accessibility was just right.<\/p>\n
But then, the Philadelphia Flower Show has often been over the top in its nearly 200 years of existence.\u00a0 The Official Guide shows photos from the 1935 show\u2014mounted during the height of the Great Depression\u2014that depicts an exhibit centered on a long rectangular water feature flanked by 20,000 blue hyacinths and 300 acacia trees from the Joseph E. Widener acacia collection.\u00a0 A year later, W. Atlee Burpee\u2019s exhibit recreated an estate garden, which, in the words of the Guide, was complete with \u201can upper and lower level, with a mansion at one end and steps leading down to an elaborately planted garden.\u201d\u00a0 The photo shows a lovely balustrade in the background as well.\u00a0 What are a few dancing brooms by comparison?<\/p>\n
Evoking the movie theme, the show\u2019s entrance was home to a towering Art Deco theater fa\u00e7ade, complete with a 29-foot high marquee of flowers.\u00a0 The entrance garden also featured an array of hybrid tea roses named after movie stars.\u00a0 I strolled by the bodacious apricot \u2018Marilyn Monroe\u2019, stalwart yellow \u2018Henry Fonda\u2019 and flashy yellow and red \u2018Judy Garland\u2019.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t see the luscious yellow \u2018Gina Lollabrigida\u2019, but I had a feeling she was there.\u00a0 The garden also held some 1,500 calla lilies, a flower that seems to pop up everywhere now.<\/p>\n
And flowers abounded.\u00a0 This show was the most flowery in several years.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if that is a sign of the rebounding economy, an acknowledgement that flowers and color draw the big crowds, or just an illustration of the cyclical nature of horticultural fashion, but it was refreshing.\u00a0 Though there were plenty of water features, stone walls and other handscape features, they did not predominate as they have some years.<\/p>\n
The high tide of vegetable gardening peaked about two years ago, but many display gardens held edibles.\u00a0 Vertical gardening, one of this year\u2019s fashion trends, was in evidence, with several displays containing the specially designed wall units that enable large or small \u201cgreen walls.\u201d\u00a0 The effect, when well done, is striking, but every time I see those green walls, I wonder how long it will take before water ultimately penetrates the wall underneath.\u00a0 Also, green walls, like any collection of growing things, take maintenance.\u00a0 Hardly anyone thinks about that at the outset and even fewer people want to think of that a year or two later.<\/p>\n
But the Philadelphia Flower Show is not about those sorts of considerations; it is about fantasy and there was plenty of that.\u00a0 Of course proximity to all that color, chlorophyll and commercialism induces a form of insanity and I give in to it the instant I walk in the entrance of the exhibition hall.\u00a0 From the first display I make mental plant lists for my garden.\u00a0 Invariably I see an alluring clematis or heuchera or primrose that I must have.\u00a0 I am not sold on the necessity of growing calla lilies yet, but if they continue to play important roles at the Philadelphia Flower Show, I am sure it will happen.<\/p>\n
The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, which runs the show, has a large sale area in the middle of the exhibition hall.\u00a0 Members of their staff circulate through, chatting with show goers.\u00a0 I met Glenn Ashton, Head Gardener at the PHS headquarters, Meadowbrook Farm.\u00a0 Our conversation was one of the highpoints for me as we traded horticultural talk, compared notes on plant vendors and discussed ways of attracting hummingbirds to the garden.\u00a0 I walked away with the euphoria that only comes from a great conversation with someone with a passion for a subject.\u00a0 Of course I also walked away with a cyclamen that I have never grown before.\u00a0 Great plant conversations may also exacerbate certain forms of garden insanity.<\/p>\n
And that is probably the best thing about the Philadelphia Flower Show\u2014the opportunity to bond with hundreds of other people who love plants, yearn for spring and draw inspiration from gardens and gardening.\u00a0 The crowds can be daunting, but the feeling is good.\u00a0 Though the earth is frozen, my horticultural engine is stoked.\u00a0 The season has begun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I did not go through hell to get to the Philadelphia Flower Show, but my faithful PFS companion and I went through every possible permutation of \u201cwintery mix\u201d to get home.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter; the trip was worth it.\u00a0 The flower show this year was big, bold and beautiful, not to mention being worth the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2],"tags":[1125,1126,1124],"class_list":["post-1279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest","category-spring","tag-garden-history-horticultural-shows","tag-pennsylvania-horitcultural-society","tag-philadelphia-flower-show-spring-gardening-flower-shows-horticultural-trends"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1279"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1280,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279\/revisions\/1280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}