Even with temperatures in the teens and snow falling from the sky, there is little doubt that spring will be here soon. While garden enthusiasts yearn for the day that they can break soil and begin planting, rearranging their landscape and planning new landscape designs, the harbingers of spring continue to press forward with signs of an end to this longer-than-usual winter. If you’re looking for a little inspiration or just want to feel a little closer to warmer weather, there’s one place you have to be.
The Philadelphia Flower Show, an annual event presented by The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, is the longest-running and largest indoor flower show in the world. This year marks the 185th show and runs March 1st to March 9th. This spectacle spans over 10 acres of indoor exhibit space and showcases a dizzying array of plants, flowers and garden scenes in award winning landscape, hardscape and theme-based artistically interpreted designs.
This year’s theme, “ARTiculture”, displays will surely channel the artistry of masters like Monet, Renoir or Picasso. With everyone vying for a ribbon, (and the marketing perks of being a winner) the stakes are high for all exhibitors and the pressure is on.
Building Landscape Inspiration
While preparation for the show’s exhibitors began many months ago, it all has to come together in just a week of building in the exhibit hall. Mounds of soil and mulch are hauled in on huge trucks as workers scramble to create their exhibits. Other workers build semi-permanent walls and create huge indoor ponds and piazza-worthy fountains.
Over 128,000 pounds of Hardscaping™ material is delivered, including an outdoor fireplace, requiring specified installations in over 24 of the show’s exhibits.
Cobblestone and flagstone pavers were used to create narrow paths that lead visitors to carefully crafted flower beds, while Cast Veneer, Ledgestone and Brick applications provide structural support for natural wood pergolas in “complete-with-TV” outdoor living spaces.
While some workers plant trees, volunteers can be seen laboring over the tedious process of systematically inserting delicate flowers into carefully mapped out designs and patterns. Others work on gallery type installations that display miniature garden scenes or extravagant centerpieces. And dirt. There is dirt everywhere.
Revive All Your Senses
Walk the show floor and see the amazing colors, designs and patterns. Touch products in the Marketplace, listen to the sound of trickling fountains and water features and taste the exquisite hope of spring to come.
Oh, but the smell. Fresh and alive with the promise of the warmer weather soon to surround us, we breathe it in as we stare in awe at the brilliance of it all. Visitors will take photographs, lots of photographs, and then stop by the marketplace with their newly inspired green thumbs to take a little piece of the next season home with them.
Opening day is Saturday; and when the curtains are pulled back, and the floors are swept and tidied up, the magic begins. The colors and the scents of the next season will pull us all in… and hug us like a friend who was gone just a little bit too long.