Cool Things from the 2014 Philadelphia Flower Show

March 5th, 2014

Being fairly clueless when it comes to art, I wasn’t sure if I was going to “get” anything at this year’s art-meets-plants Philadelphia International Flower Show.

One of the main-entry gardens at the 2014 Philadelphia International Flower Show.

You know what, though? I liked it.

People who like art and know the pieces and places and artists behind the inspirations for the two dozen major display garden really will appreciate the 2014 show, which runs through Sunday, March 9, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

It has the feel of an art gallery to me. You can zip through the gardens and enjoy the surface-level benefit of color and fragrance, or you can stand and study the deeper connections the garden designs have to their paired art works.

I’m more in the first camp, but hey, I’m OK with that.

The displays were, as always, very impressive and creative. And after this never-ending, frigid winter, I’ll take whatever blooms I can get however anyone wants to deliver them.

That said, here are eight of the coolest things that caught my eye at this year’s show:

1.) The main-entry gardens. The show always shoots for something “wow” right inside the door. This year didn’t disappoint.

The concept is a series of three increasingly large, upright, flower-adorned picture frames that have floral geometric shapes that seems to be flying out of them.

Beds of massed begonias, kalanchoe, tulips, hyacinths and marigolds fill the surrounding beds, and live topiary evergreens and columnar weeping Alaska-cedars flank the frames.

If that’s not enough, the lights dim and change colors to add to the fairyland feel, and dancers do ballet-like routines to music six times a day over the gardens while suspended from the ceiling.

Some of the artist-produced seed packets by Hudson Valley Seed Library.

2.) The Hudson Valley Seed Library. This little small-town (Accord, N.Y.) public library came up with the idea to “loan” seeds to patrons a dozen years ago, encouraging them to “return” fresh seeds after the season’s harvest.

The novel program turned into a small seed-producing farm, then to a seed company specializing in regional open-pollinated heirlooms and now into its very first seed catalog.

What grabbed my eye at the show was the artwork on the seed packets – done by artists commissioned to develop art that conveyed the story of the seeds inside. Very interesting… and beautifully done.

That led to an exhibit on seed-packet art that now travels. This year was its debut at the Philadelphia Flower Show.

Hudson Valley Seed Library seeds are $2.95 a packet, and besides the new catalog, the library has a seed-growing newsletter called the “Seeder’s Digist.”

All of this interesting story is online at the library’s web site.

The King’s Table… a Korean floral buffet.

3.) The King’s Table. Floral designers Ron Mulray and Adriene Presti created what looks like a buffet table of Korean foods, only the foods are made out of flowers and plant parts.

St. Johnswort fruits look like some kind of berry dish, flowers are arranged to look like sushi, and assorted leaves and greenery look like salad choices.

The table was inspired by the exhibit “Treasures from Korea” at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

4.) Plant-part bugs. Mercer County Community College wanted to educate gardeners on some of the common bugs they’re likely to encounter in the garden – both for the good and the bad.

They did it by crafting mega-size bugs out of plant parts and putting them in a garden setting called “Back Yard Battle.”

My favorite two are the oversized praying mantis holding loppers in its front “hands” and a stinkbug made out of bark that’s feasting on a peach the size of beach ball.

Seward Johnson’s “Unconditional Surrender.”

5.) Seward Johnson sculptures. New Jersey-based Michael Bruce Florist has a beautiful exhibit called “Dreamcatcher,” but what really draws everyone’s attention are the replicas of Seward Johnson sculptures.

Johnson is the founder of New Jersey’s Grounds for Sculpture, and he’s famous for life-like sculptures of people in interesting settings – sometimes famous ones.

One end of the Dreamcatcher exhibit has a sculpture of Marilyn Monroe in her famous dress-blowing scene, and the other end has the iconic “Unconditional Surrender” of a sailor kissing a nurse to celebrate the ending of World War II.

Gobs of people were snapping “selfies” at these spots. (Not me, but I liked the sculptures and the whole exhibit.)

I’m leading a bus day trip Oct. 17 to see the real Grounds for Sculpture in addition to New York’s High Line elevated rail-line park. Details are on my Talks and Trips page.

6.) Unveilings. One aim of the Philly show is to be to horticulture what the New York Fashion Show is to the fashion industry – the place where the latest trends and cutting-edge products are unveiled.

The “New Plant Showcase” display, for instance, showed off five flowers debuting this spring – viola ‘Hip Hop,’ begonia ‘Unstoppable Upright,’ gomphrena ‘Pink Zazzle,’ a speckled bluish-purple primrose called ‘Blue Zebra,’ and an interesting new foxglove hybrid called digiplexis, which I hadn’t seen before.

Then there’s the first annual PHS “Hot List,” which offers a look at the year’s up-and-coming trends and products.

For 2014, the list suggests that hot items will include fireplaces and fire pits, LED landscape lights and mini-terrariums. (See the list PHS Hot List online.)

And PHS used the show this year as the venue to announce its 2014 crop of prestigious Gold Medal Award-winning plants.

For the first time, that award program includes top perennials deserving greater use in Pennsylvania landscapes in addition to the traditional trees and shrubs.

Four perennials and four woody plants earned 2014 PHS Gold Medal Awards: threadleaf blue-star, barrenwort ‘Frohnleiten,’ Japanese forest grass and Christmas fern (perennials) and American fringe tree, Korean white pine, dwarf Japanese-cedar ‘Globosa Nana’ and fothergilla ‘Mt. Airy’ (woodies.)

7.) Topiary yew. The Einstein Health Network has a serene garden with a reflecting pool in the middle, but what grabbed my eye was the crafted evergreen that was pruned in a way that reminded me of a Don King hair-do.

The plant turned out to be an ordinary yew. By selective pruning instead of the usual shearing into balls and boxes, this widely used foundation plant became a work of art – a specimen – instead of an over-used bore.

Gloucester City High School Garden Club’s store window.

8.) The store windows. Every year, the show has an artistic design competition in which school groups, garden clubs and other amateurs compete in designs of various vignettes.

One of the themes this year was store windows, and the one that caught my eye was one done by the Gloucester City High School Garden Club.

The students designed a storefront around an imaginary French art boutique that not only looked amazingly professional but also tied in with the show’s overall theme. They called it the “Boutiques au Musee d’Art.”

Some future designers must be in that club.