2023 Philadelphia Flower Show Is Back Inside, and the Theme Is “The Garden Electric”
October 4th, 2022
Those of you who wanted the Philadelphia Flower Show to go back inside after two years of COVID-forced outdoor shows will be getting your wish.
“The Garden Electric” is the 2023 Philadelphia Flower Show theme.
The 2023 Philadelphia Flower Show will take place March 4-12, 2023, inside its former home of the Pennsylvania Convention Center, 12th and Arch streets in center-city Philly.
Show officials announced on Friday that the 2023 theme will be “The Garden Electric,” a topic that aims to capture the “spark of joy” that often comes with giving or getting flowers.
Lowee’s Group Tours and I plan to host five day trips each weekday to the “shocking” 2023 show. We’ll “plug in” the details as soon as they’re ready on both my Talks and Trips page and Lowee’s Garden Series page. (OK, no more electric jokes. Promise.)
The 195-year-old flower show, which is America’s biggest and the world’s longest-running horticultural event, had been staged over 10 acres of the Pennsylvania Convention Center since 1996.
The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, which operates the show, was happy with that arrangement and was drawing some 250,000 visitors from around the world to see each year’s show.
But then came COVID, and show officials had to decide whether to go to a Plan B or scrap the show altogether. They chose Plan B and held a pair of June shows outside over 15 acres of south Philly’s FDR Park in 2021 and 2022.
Some people really liked the outdoor version and actually preferred June shows in FDR Park to end-of-winter indoor shows at the Convention Center.
The leading reason I heard from the outside-backers was that they liked the less crowded conditions. But some just liked the displays of naturally blooming plants and the vibe of the park setting.
On the other hand, most long-time show-goers yearned for a return of the “wow factor” of instant, full-bloom spring while winter is wearing thin. And they liked the “magic” of having so many plants forced into bloom as opposed to seeing June displays of flowers blooming everywhere at that time of year.
Although I thought PHS did an excellent job rolling with the seismic shift, I fit into the latter camp. It’s just impossible to replicate the feeling of walking into the Convention Center on a frosty, gray day and seeing and smelling wall-to-wall blooms.
Nevertheless, PHS did a lot of consulting with city officials and waded through mountains of visitor feedback before deciding on a return to the great indoors.
The outdoor show had a different feel.
Show officials have been mum on outdoor attendance figures and financial details, so I suspect the outdoor show didn’t quite measure up on that front.
The crowd numbers looked less to me on the days I attended the 2021 and 2022 shows, and from talking to vendors, it sounded like the outdoor marketplace wasn’t bringing in as many sales as a typical indoor one.
PHS’s director of design Seth Pearsoll said the 2023 indoor show will have a new look and layout, in part because it’s taking into account some of the features that visitors said they liked about the outdoor shows.
I’ve also heard inklings that PHS is pondering some sort of satellite outdoor show in addition to the flagship end-of-winter indoor show.
As for next year’s “Garden Electric” theme, Pearsoll said the goal is “to encompass the feeling of magic, celebration, and awe we get when we encounter gorgeous flowers and gardens. We are creating a truly immersive experience for guests centered on bold, eccentric, vibrant, color pairings… and an element of surprise that will ignite a sense of wonder and excitement.”
Tickets to the 2023 show went on sale yesterday,Oct. 3 on the PHS website.
Discounted early-bird rates of $38.50 for adults, $30 for students aged 18-24, and $20 for children aged 5-17 will be offered for a limited time.