The horticultural world\u2014past and present– is full of big personalities, including a colorful cast of plant fanatics, design divas and fastidious flower arrangers.\u00a0 Each adds a bright strand to the tapestry of horticultural history.\u00a0 My recent trip to the Philadelphia Flower Show inspired thoughts of one such big personality, J. Liddon Pennock, Jr.\u20141913-2003\u2014 a longtime fixture on the Philadelphia plant scene and patron saint of the annual Flower Show.\u00a0 Admirers sometimes referred to him as \u201cMr. Flower Show\u201d or even \u201cMr. Horticulture.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pennock\u2019s father was a successful retail florist in Philadelphia, operating a family-owned shop.\u00a0 Like most businesses, it suffered during the 1930\u2019s and in 1933 Liddon interrupted his studies at Cornell University to come home and help salvage the business.\u00a0 While undertaking that daunting task, he wooed and won wealthy Alice Herkness, whose parents presented the couple with a handsome wedding gift–the 150-acre Meadowbrook Farm in Abington Township, just north of Philadelphia.\u00a0 Long afterwards, Pennock said, \u201cI made the best catch in Philadelphia; she was beautiful and wealthy.” –<\/p>\n
He had a talent for designing with flowers and connecting with people, especially Philadelphia\u2019s most prominent families. The shop prospered and Pennock was hired to furnish arrangements and floral d\u00e9cor for debutante parties, society balls and weddings.\u00a0 His floral artistry adorned the wedding of Grace Kelly\u2019s sister and the florist maintained that he would have been hired to do the same job for the actress-turned-princess had she not been wed in Monaco.\u00a0 His fame spread and eventually he was called on to supervise the floral arrangements for the wedding of President Richard Nixon\u2019s daughter, Tricia, in 1971, supervising a crew of 85 florists from all over the country. The Nixons liked his work and asked him to supervise holiday decorating at the White House from 1971-1973.<\/p>\n
While building his business and becoming a fixture on the Philadelphia-area social scene, Pennock developed Meadowbrook Farm into a horticultural showplace. Classical in style, the garden featured 15 separate \u201crooms,\u201d each aligned with a room in the Cotswolds-style house.\u00a0 Clipped hedges, topiary and statuary defined and accented the various spaces, which were filled with an assortment of ornamental plants, shrubs and trees.\u00a0 A conservatory was added in the 1960\u2019s.<\/p>\n
After years as a retail florist, Pennock sold his shop in 1970 and focused his attention on Meadowbrook.\u00a0 His \u201cretirement\u201d was actually a relocation and he proceeded to build a retail nursery and garden shop at Meadowbrook.\u00a0 Though he engaged in professional activities that involved substantial amounts of dirt, H. Liddon Pennock was always a snappy dresser.\u00a0 A photo taken at the 1977 Philadelphia Flower Show shows him clad in the natty sweater vest and bow tie that he habitually wore while doing horticultural work.\u00a0 He tied his shoes with yellow laces, which he reportedly washed and ironed himself.\u00a0 His 2003 obituary noted that he and his wife were regulars on \u201cbest dressed\u201d lists.<\/p>\n
Pennock loved the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, especially its signature event, the Philadelphia Flower Show.\u00a0 According to the PHS, he spent more than 50 years working on various aspects of the show, serving as Chairman during the 1980\u2019s and advisor later on.\u00a0 In recognition of his work, support and spirit, the 1991 show was dedicated to him.\u00a0 Its theme, \u201cEndless Spring,\u201d was a neat encapsulation of his life in horticulture and his dedication to the endless possibilities inherent in growing things.<\/p>\n
Pennock said of himself, \u201cIn a way, I’m a fake. People think I know a great deal more about plants than I do. My main forte is knowing how to use plants better than anybody else.\u201d Evidently many others agreed.<\/p>\n
The long-ago White House arrangements are gone, as is much of Pennock\u2019s ephemeral artistry, but his legacy lives on in Pennsylvania.\u00a0 In 2004, the Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania, another of Pennock\u2019s favorite horticultural endeavors, opened the J.L. Pennock Garden, designed to replicate the colorful exuberance of the gardens at Meadowbrook Farm.\u00a0 Meadowbrook\u2019s carefully planned landscape is in the capable hands of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, to whom Pennock willed the property at his death in 2003.\u00a0 Though the original estate is much smaller now, the intact gardens still draw visitors during the growing season with vibrant plantings and programs aimed at continuing what Pennock did best\u2014bringing horticulture to an ever-widening audience.<\/p>\n
And, of course, his beloved Philadelphia Flower Show flourishes.\u00a0 I think he would have approved of this year\u2019s effort, with its emphasis on a big, bold theme and an abundance of flowers.\u00a0 Liddon Pennock, with his yellow shoelaces and endless enthusiasm, is long gone, but I think his spirit hovers over the Flower Show every year.<\/p>\n
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The horticultural world\u2014past and present– is full of big personalities, including a colorful cast of plant fanatics, design divas and fastidious flower arrangers.\u00a0 Each adds a bright strand to the tapestry of horticultural history.\u00a0 My recent trip to the Philadelphia Flower Show inspired thoughts of one such big personality, J. Liddon Pennock, Jr.\u20141913-2003\u2014 a longtime … 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":[4,6,2,3,5],"tags":[1131,1129,1127,1133,1130,1128,283,1132],"class_list":["post-1284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","category-winter","tag-celebrity-florists","tag-garden-personalities","tag-h-liddon-pennock","tag-meadowbrook-farm","tag-morris-arboretum","tag-pennsylvania-horticultural-society","tag-philadelphia-flower-show","tag-philadelphia-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1284","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=1284"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1285,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1284\/revisions\/1285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}