See the 2014 Philadelphia Flower Show

January 7th, 2014

Did you make your plans yet to see this year’s Philadelphia International Flower Show?

ARTiculture is the theme of the 2014 Philadelphia International Flower Show.

It’s happening March 1-9 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, and the theme will be “ARTiculture: Where Art Meets Horticulture.”

Some of America’s top art museums are taking part in this show, which promises to have lots of floral mosaics, sculptures, topiaries, representations of famous artworks and many more examples of how gardens and art naturally go together.

Once again, I’ll be leading several bus trips to see the show through Lowee’s Group Tours of Harrisburg.

Now that the show is opening over two full weekends (it used to open on a Sunday with the first Saturday being a members-only day), we’re going to offer our first Philly Show overnighter.

We’ll head down to the Convention Center on the morning of Sat., March 1, arriving around noon after the main cattle herd is already inside.

You go straight in to enjoy the show while the bus takes your luggage over to the Hampton Inn, a half-block away. Whenever you’ve had enough for the day, just head over to the hotel, and your bags will be waiting for you in the room.

I’ll meet back up with you at the hotel in the evening to review the show and go over options for the next day.

You’ll then have most of Sun., March 2, to see more of the show or other nearby sites, such as the Reading Terminal Market or Chinatown. We’ll leave for home at 6 p.m.

The trip cost is $289 per person, which includes the hotel, transportation and 2-day Flower Show admission. I’ll also give away prizes on the bus and lots of inside show tips to help you make the most of your time, and Stauffers of Kissel Hill will give away four $25 gift cards.

Call Lowees at 717-657-9658 or email ckelly@lowees.com for more details or to sign up. The full itinerary also will be on the Lowees web site.

If you just want to do one day, we’ve got day trips lined up for Mon., March 3; Wed., March 5; Thur., March 6, and Fri., March 7.

We’ve been doing four day trips for several years now, and most of them fill up, so now’s not too early to get on the list.

We depart a little later than most bus trips, timing it to arrive around 12:30 p.m. (avoiding the opening rush). We also stay later than most – until 7 p.m., after a lot of the buses have already gone.

Stauffers gives away gift cards on each of these trips, too, and I do prizes and show-seeing tips on the way down.

The day trips are $79 – same as the past two years.

I think bus is the way to see this show because you avoid driving the turnpike and crazy Schuylkill Expressway, then get dropped off right at the front door. By car, by the time you get done paying for gas, turnpike tolls, your show ticket and $20 to park for the day, you’ve invested more than the bus fare (not even counting saved aggravation and the decent odds of winning some kind of prize on the bus).

The show itself is incredibly impressive, if you’ve never seen it.

It’s something that even non-gardeners usually appreciate and an event that everyone should check out at least once.

Most people who go on our trips go almost every year.

The themes and gardens change every year, so just because you’ve seen it once doesn’t mean you’ve seen for good.

It’s the biggest and oldest indoor flower show in the world, in case you’re keeping score.

For more on the show, see the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s show web site at http://theflowershow.com.

The Philadelphia International Flower Show is just the first destination on our list of Lowees Garden Series trips for 2014.

We’re also going to see former Victory Garden host Roger Swain’s home garden, Virginia’s Daffodil Festival, the country’s biggest garden tour (Garden Walk Buffalo) and the up-and-coming Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens (voted America’s top public garden by Trip Advisor readers).

More on those here next week (or if you just can’t wait, check out all of my talks and trips for 2014 at http://georgeweigel.net/georges-talks-and-trips).