Spring at Phipps

April 18th, 2023

   Since few of you likely made it to Pittsburgh to see Phipps Conservatory’s 2023 spring flower show, I thought I’d share a few photos of it this week.

   Phipps Conservatory, if you’ve never seen it, is a 14-room Lord and Burnham Victorian glasshouse that dates to 1893. It’s filled with changing exhibits of tender specimens from around the world (including desert plants, ferns, tropicals, orchids, and a butterfly house) and is surrounded by 15 acres of outdoor gardens.

   Each spring, the conservatory stages a spring flower show. This year’s four-week show, which just ended, centered around a theme of Five Senses of Splendor.

A spring-time scene featuring a pond, Japanese fountain, and tulips was the centerpiece display in the central glasshouse.

   As visitors enter the main glasshouse through a second-floor entry, they were greeted by an oversized perfume bottle, adorned with succulents like strings of jewels. The bottle was surrounded by colorful gardens of fragrant plants.

The perfume bottle set in a fragrant garden.

   One of the most “springy” parts of the show was off to the left wing where the conservatory’s Sunken Garden featured a waterway lined by wall-to-wall blooming plants, highlighted by tall blue-purple delphiniums.

Bulbs and delphiniums add spring color to this garden.

   Daffodils were on display everywhere – thousands of them, starting with bed fulls lining the outdoor entrance to the conservatory. A more formal display of them was in the geometric beds of the Broderie Room, where yellow daffs were paired with dark-purple annual flowers that I couldn’t identify.

Yellow daffodils and purple annuals pair nicely in these geometric beds.

   The conservatory’s East Room is always changing. For Five Senses of Splendor, the room transformed into a wonderland ruled by oversized shovels, watering cans, and super-sized painted-wooden flowers.

These are some big watering cans.

     Sound was highlighted in the Serpentine Room, where gardens of birdhouses sported recording of chirping birds.  You had to think twice to determine whether the bird sounds were real or recorded.

Lots of mini birdhouses in this room… and chirping sounds, too.

   Phipp’s Orchid Room is always blooming with multiple species of orchids. This was one of the scenes during the spring show.

The orchid room.

   The Tropical Forest Conservatory is the rear-most room of the conservatory, and it’s 12,000 square feet of plants, bridges, walkways, and waterfalls that every couple of years changes to highlight a different part of the tropical world. The space is now devoted to the tropical forests of Hawaii.

The Tropical Forest Conservatory is now devoted to Hawaii.

   One last view that you’ll see beyond the spring show is this pairing in the Desert Room. A huge gold-variegated agave is planted next to a colony of yellow barrel cacti, making a color- and texture-coordinated partnership out of plants found in super-dry climates.

A gold-variegated agave next to yellow barrel cacti.

   If you’re thinking of visiting Phipps, it’s open year round and is located in Pittsburgh’s Oakland section on the edge of the city’s large Schenley Park at 1 Schenley Drive.

  The outdoor gardens open as the weather warms. It’s also especially nice around Christmas time when the lights go up.

   Tickets are $21.95 for adults and $13.95 for ages 2-18.