Philadelphia Flower Show: Harbinger of Spring
Thursday, March 19th, 2009
March 17th was St. Patrick’s Day and March 20th is the first day of Spring. So “green” is in the air, and the first taste of Spring I experienced was at The Philadelphia Flower Show earlier this month at the Convention Center in Center City Philadelphia. Then, just yesterday, I spotted some crocuses in full bloom, so I have also included some shots of these lovelies taken in my neighborhood.
The Flower Show, purported to be the biggest in the country, was divided into three sections:
1. The first section, and by far the most spectacular, consisted of floral and landscape designs by local landscapers. The theme this year was Bella Italia, so there were lots of Roman columns, sculptures, and even a gondola!
2. The second section was an impressive array of individual plants created for competition. The flowers were really lovely and I was able to photograph a few of the winners.
3. The third section featured all the vendors who have anything to do with gardening, indoor designs, and landscaping, such as pots for planting, seeds, fresh and dried flowers, photos of gardens, etc.
I took many pictures. Unfortunately, some of the displays were not well lit, and even with my iPhoto adjustments, the results were too dark. Nevertheless, I managed to capture some dazzling displays. Hopefully, all these colorful flower photos will banish any end-of-winter blahs!
I call these two displays “Wall Flowers” because they were mounted on glass walls and affixed high on the glass so that they seemed suspended in air. Test-tube style vases kept the flowers from dying. These were my favorites!
This was my favorite “unique” flower arrangement. The band consists of individual roses, while the rest of the hat is petals….a perfect Red Hat Society chapeau!
This was one of the landscape displays that was in the center section with plenty of light. It was not as “ornate” as the Italian displays, but the flowers were lovely.
My husband and I noticed that orchids were very popular at the Flower Show, both in the section for competition and the vendors’ booths. Here’s just one example of these exotic lovelies.
The colors in the flower show were stunning, especially the pink flowers and red flowers. Here is just one of many.
Finally, I captured real Spring flowers late in the afternoon, when the sun was low, and the earth seemed to glow.
This first one is on the lawn in front of our local library, dedicated to one of the women from the Garden Club who died last year. What a nice tribute!
This second photo was taken as the sun was setting on a large lawn in front of a huge house near my mother-in-law’s residence. I don’t think I have ever seen so many crocuses blooming at one time! At first, my husband thought they were flowers that had fallen off the tree, but a closer look revealed a large array of purple crocuses, a real sign that Spring is coming!
