Bulbs Galore at This Year’s Philly Flower Show

February 14th, 2017

If you’re a color fanatic, this is your year for the Philadelphia Flower Show.

The 2017 Philly show, which takes place a week later than usual from March 11 to 19 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, is building 10 acres of garden displays around the theme “Holland: Flowering the World.”

Since this little country (technically, the Netherlands, not Holland) produces three-quarters of the world’s flower bulbs, you can bet we’re going to see a lot of tulips, hyacinths and daffodils in blooming action.

It helps that these are relatively easy to force into bloom for show time – certainly much easier than getting late-summer bloomers like crape myrtles or fall bloomers like asters to bloom inside in March.

The game plan for the main entrance alone sounds very impressive.

The main attraction is going to be a sort of ceiling of flowers, designed to harken the fields full of production bulbs that color the Dutch countryside like corn fields cover ours.

This floral canopy will feature 6,000 fresh-cut and dried flowers hanging from multi-colored strings.

Visitors will pass under that and a Delft-tiled, flower-boxed, brick bridge inspired by the Amsterdam cityscape to get to a windmill-studded landscape of 30,000 more flowers. The rainbow gardens there will be filled with thousands of Dutch-flagship tulips as well as lesser known bulbs, including fritillaria and anemones.

It’ll also include blooming cherry trees, sycamores and masses of shrubs and perennials.

Some people go to see this world’s biggest, oldest indoor flower show every year. I’ve seen two dozen of them and never get tired of them since every show is different.

I think the best way to get there is by tour bus. Let the driver deal with the Schuylkill traffic and turnpike tolls, then drop you off and pick you up at the front door.

I’m leading five weekday bus tours again this year to see the 2017 show. We leave late in the morning from West Shore and East Shore locations to get there after the door-opening rush, then stay until 7 p.m. as the crowds thin.

On the way down, I give away prizes on the bus and give inside show tips to help you make the most of your day.

The cost is $85 per person, which includes your show ticket. See the trip flyer on Lowee’s Group Tours website or call Lowee’s at 717-657-965 or toll-free 888-345-6933 to reserve a seat.

What many gardeners might not realize is that the Dutch aren’t just about bulbs. The country is a huge exporter of woody plants and cut flowers in addition to bulbs.

Its plant breeders come up with about 65 percent of the new plants introduced in Europe each year.

And just about everyone in the Netherlands has a small garden or a penchant for cut flowers.

Overall, it’s a plant-loving culture.

Add cultural aspects like the windmills, canals, bridges, bicycles, wooden shoes and giant cheese wheels (think Gouda and Edam), and the designers building this year’s 40 Philly-show display gardens will have a lot to work with.

Last year’s National Park-themed show was decidedly natural and green, which nature-lovers adored but fans of booming color and formal gardens didn’t particularly like.

This year, the tables are turned. Expect blocks, ribbons and curved masses of hot pink, glowing red, neon gold and velvety purple. Also expect water features, hanging baskets and overflowing pots of color.

The Convention Center’s Grand Hall will house a World Market featuring a Dutch shopping village, a craft area to make your own planter (extra fee), demos and design competitions by floral designers, and a Pop Up Beer Garden run by the show presenter, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.

Across from that will be the popular wine and spirits tasting area where a couple of dozen producers give away free samples.

Another big arm of the show is the marketplace of 180 vendors, and a third facet is the Hamilton Horticourt, where amateur growers vie for ribbons for their specimen plants.

Other exhibits feature pressed-flower art, miniature settings, small-space garden designs, and educational displays.

Seminars take place on the show floor, one after the other daily. This year’s topics will include container gardening, foodscaping, attracting pollinators, growing orchids, and of course, planting bulbs.

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Garden Railway Society will be building a garden railway with trains running through the Dutch countryside and an Amsterdam depiction.

The Butterflies Live exhibit returns down the main hallway with 1,000 butterflies flitting around a butterfly habitat. (There’s an extra fee for that.)

If you’re not going to see this year’s show via the George/Lowee’s bus, get your show tickets ahead of time. Adult tickets are $35 at the door but $29.50 (including the service charge) through the show’s website until March 10.

PHS also offers advance tickets through businesses. Among the ones it mentions are Giant, Acme and Wegman’s grocery stores, Stauffers of Kissel Hill stores, and some AAA offices.

Show hours are: March 11 from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; March 12 from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.; March 13-17 from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; March 18 from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., and March 19 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Show proceeds benefit PHS activities such as greening projects around Philadelphia, tree-planting efforts, and fresh-food programs in low-income areas.