Because we stayed in town, we decided to spend Wednesday afternoon and evening at the Philadelphia Flower Show, the largest and oldest flower show in North America. While we had pretty much made up our minds last weekend to attend the show, the show organizers on Monday made the unprecedented decision to offer a significant reduction in the entrance fee because meteorologists had forecast the worst snowstorm of the season for Sunday night into Monday, a storm which - fortunately - veered to our south and only brought us 1-1/2 inches of snow instead of the forecast 12 inches. The discount offer, which was good for any day of the show but had to be purchased on Monday, clinched our decision.
The theme of this year's show was ARTiculture (art + horticulture). Most years, the displays seem to have only the most tenuous connection to the theme, but this year the designers really took it to heart. My favorite display is depicted in the image at the top of the post - a backyard garden incorporating sculpture and plant material. The design is bold and has clean, distinct, uncluttered lines. Exactly to my taste.
Another of my favorites was a joint effort between the Brandywine Conservancy, a regional land trust, and a garden designer. The Brandywine valley, located 20 miles west of Philadelphia, was the home of the Wyeth family, including such well-known artists as Andrew Wyeth and Jamie Wyeth. The conservancy's exhibit incorporated a facsimile of a portion of Andrew Wyeth's painting studio into native woodlands. The design also included the most natural-looking artificial stream I have ever seen in my life. Another impressive achievement.
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| Andrew Wyeth's studio in the woods |
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| Native woodland garden outside Wyeth's studio |
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| Hudson Valley Seed Library's art-inspired seed packs |
8 comments:
We're really having spring in winter here - though my garden sadly bears no resemblance to any of the entries at the show! Have a good weekend.
Very cool, Scott. I keep saying i'm going to go to the flower show but have yet to make it there. Thanks for sharing!
I love the idea of "ART-iculture" and this show looks beautiful and quite well done. Such a great idea!
That kind of thing is a real advantage to living near a big city. How do you protect garden plant from the deer?
John: Our temperatures have moderated, too, but I wouldn't call it spring yet. Plus, there's still plenty of snow on the ground and it's melting, so we're in for several weeks of mud, I'm afraid. Alas, my garden, too, looks nothing like the gardens at the flower show.
Carolyn: Kali and I don't go to the show every year, and occasionally we're privileged to be invited as guests of the university where I teach if the university hosts a faculty & alumni reception (which they did not do this year). But, I have to admit that this year's show was among the better we have attended. The cost certainly is off-putting ($32 at the door; $27 + "processing fee" with advance purchase).
Robin Andrea: I was skeptical about the ARTiculture theme when announced, but it DID work out well. More than the usual number of display gardens seemed to be well-designed and appealing--but maybe Kali and I are just suffering from delayed onset spring fever!
Mark: Few gardens in this area look anything like the fanciful display at the Flower Show because (1) the Flower Show displays often include a wide variety of plants with differing flowering phenologies forced into bloom to accommodate the show schedule (e.g., a daffodil blooming next to a purple-headed coneflower), and (2) there are no deer. Real-life gardens around here tend to be very modest affairs with a limited palette because of the deer, or a few people erect deer fencing around their entire properties if they're serious about gardening.
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