Y’all may or may not do much cruisin around the Internet; sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t. But if you haven’t found where my weekly gardening articles are posted, click here. As is the case with some newsprint websites, they won’t post current articles because “they” say folks will just read the online copy and stop buying the hard copy. I don’t know if there’s any merit to that or not, but I do know newsprint and newspapers in cities all over the country are in decline because of the ever increasing free content you can find online.
So, I’ve decided to post recent articles here, keep in mind though that it won’t be the one you’ll see in the two PA newspapers I write for – Grove City’s Allied News or Sharon’s The Herald. They wouldn’t appreciate me posting articles that are due to go in that week’s papers! But they will be fresher than what’s posted on their website.
Here then is a little something to read.
The Philadelphia Flower Show
The month of March can be quite invigorating to a gardener, especially if you’re a seed starter or flower show goer. I know it’s only January but March (think spring!) isn’t that far off so mark your calendars for March 4 – 11 and choose one of those dates for attending the grandaddy of all flower shows – the 2012 Philadelphia International Flower Show. This year’s theme is grand enough to entice gardeners of all ages – “Hawaii: Islands of Aloha.” I’ve never been to Hawaii but my wife has and says “it’s a natural paradise,” how can we not plan to attend this year’s Flower Show?
The first Flower Show took place 183 years ago, in 1829, “at the Masonic Hall on Chestnut Street, where the well-known Christmas favorite, the poinsettia, was introduced.” That tidbit of info comes from the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s “History Of” info page on the Flower Show’s website. In 1829 Andrew Jackson was our 7th president, William Burt obtained a patent for what would become the first typewriter, and Levi Strauss was born, and we all know what Levi did to jeans.
An example of music from the 2008 Philadelphia Flower Show
What’s even more interesting to me is the fact that 25 horticultural societies had been formed and had decided that folks needed to see their “horticultural treasures.” According to the PHS Flower Show website, plants from those societies included “exotic and native plants like magnolias, peonies from China, an India rubber tree, the Coffee Tree of Arabia, and sugar cane from the West Indies.”
In the early 1900s under new management, the Flower Show began its current day Competitive Classes horticultural displays and in 1996 set up shop at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in downtown Philadelphia. Encompassing about 33 acres of indoor gardening space, the Philly Flower Show is the largest indoor flower show in the world and has over 250,000 visitors during the week-long event. This year’s Show will feature more than 2,000 entries and include displays of palm, bamboo, green walls, and even a “plant canopy that will immerse visitors in the Hawaiian rainforest.”
One of the best bargains for attendees is the free gardening presentations that are held throughout the week. These include lectures on flower arranging, container gardening, landscaping, pest control, growing orchids, and many other topics. Speakers are local and national authors, experts on subjects such as edible landscaping, bulb forcing, and organic gardening.
If you would like to see the week-long schedule of presenters at this year’s Philly Flower Show, click here.
The Pennsylvania Convention Center is located at 12th & Arch Streets, Philadelphia, PA 19107.
You should go, it won’t be too hard to pretend that you’re really in Hawaii, that oh so beautiful “natural paradise!”
(This article was originally published on January 4, 2012)
Filed under: garden lectures, gardening, Philadelphia Flower Show, winter | Tagged: flower shows, Philadelphia | Leave a Comment »
