As soon as I walked into the 195th Philadelphia Flower Show I was immediately delighted and overwhelmed. The entrance garden is massive. An 8,500 gallon pond reflects thousands of planted daffodils and tulips as 75,000 cut flowers explode in pink and purple bursts overhead.
I sent back some video postcards for KDKA’s Talk Pittsburgh. Here’s one from right in front of that entrance garden:
Walking around the various exhibitions made me realize what an amorphous thing a garden is. Gardens can be so many things. A garden can be a place where a community grows food, like in this installation by Delaware Valley University.
Gardens can transport us like this European-inspired garden by Irwin Landscaping and Prairie Wind.
A garden can inform like this floral map of the United States titled America in Bloom that displays the USDA’s latest update to the Plant Hardiness Zone Map.
A garden can explore the connections between Black salons and Black flower shops like in this installation by Black Girl Florists.
A garden can dazzle the senses like this kaleidoscopic entry from Roberson’s Flowers & Events.
Gardens can pop up in unexpected spaces like this garden designed by Kelly D. Norris titled A Beautiful Disturbance. It imagines an abandoned lot in an urban area that’s been reclaimed by plant life.
Kelly’s written statement displayed near his garden asks the question: How can gardening amplify dynamic, spontaneous vegetation to promote a message of renewal, hope, and community?
I was especially struck by this scene that felt both urban and completely wild. And the longer I looked at it, the stranger it all got. Here I was in downtown Philadelphia inside a convention center that was completely empty a few days ago. I imagine they first trucked tons of soil into the hall, then they brought in giant blocks of concrete and arranged them carefully as they crafted the imagined lot that serves as the base for the garden. Next they planted it with thousands of flowers. In a matter of days they created something that looks like it’s been growing naturally for years. And there are probably countless blocks like this – perhaps a little less curated – within a few miles of this convention center.
Kelly wasn’t the only one thinking about overlooked spaces. The team at Apiary Studio created a garden that recreates an embankment on the side of a highway complete with road signs and litter.
This “garden” asks the visitor to reconsider these places and how they might be imagined with beauty, sustainability and wildlife habitat in mind.
After touring all the gardens, I wandered the rest of the show where I discovered a display of British garden-inspired toys. The W. Britain company became famous for manufacturing toy soldiers in the 1890s and later created a “Miniature Gardening” series. The sets were adjustable so that the “gardener” could rearrange the flower beds and choose what plants go where. The tiny plants, made of lead, were malleable so that the leaves and flowers could be repositioned.
I was also intrigued by PLANTIT, a board game “for all garden lovers” from the 1940s. I’m hoping a game company decides to reissue this one as used copies run a few hundred dollars on online auction sites.
The Penn Museum set up an exhibit titled “Ancient Food and Flavor” which explores human relationship with agriculture. The exhibit focused on a few archaeological sites where researchers have been able to reconstruct the diets of humans from long ago.
In Numayra, a Bronze Age settlement near the Dead Sea, archaeologists discovered a burned storeroom from 4,500 years ago with remains of grapes, chickpeas, flax and pistachios.
I always leave the Philadelphia Flower Show inspired and full of questions. Am I thinking about my own garden too traditionally? What else could I be communicating with my plantings? What stories could I be telling through botanical means? Or should I just be incorporating a few massive concrete blocks into my yard to give it a little urban edge? What does a garden mean to you? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
And one more thing: In addition to all the gardens and exhibits, there’s also a marketplace full of vendors at the Flower Show. I was excited to find this booth but sad that no one was staffing it so I couldn’t play Plinko.
What beautiful exhibits!! The board game reminded me of one of my kiddo's faves growing up - Harvest Time, a sweet cooperative game where you try to harvest all your plants before winter.
I loved your news segment! Such a fun shirt, too.