While spring has begun officially, it seems that winter still hasn't released its chilly grip on us. Given the dreary weather of the past several
days-especially our Monday snowstorm!- I’m probably not the only one who’s
pining for the return of sunshine and spring flowers, so I thought I’d cheer
our blog’s readers up with a small reflection on the 2013 Philadelphia
International Flower Show.
For those of you who didn't go to this year’s flower show,
put on every year by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, the theme
was “Brilliant!” – a celebration of all things British. Exhibit designers pulled out all the stops to
recreate landscapes and iconic themes from "across the pond". Visitors were welcomed into the main
exhibition hall of the Pennsylvania Convention Center by a pair of gates
crowned by the Royal Coat of Arms, all be-decked with red and yellow carnations
and orchids.
Passing under the coat-of-arms, an alley of tall paper
birches directed the eye toward a miniature Big Ben clock that was surrounded
by sculptures and fountains.
Exhibits designed by nurseries, landscape designers, and
landscape artists stretched out in all directions from there: there was a
Beatles-themed exhibit complete with a yellow submarine;
a “London Fog” exhibit with rose-topped umbrellas dripping
streams of crystal “rain” into a still pool;
cricket bats leaning against quaint brick cottages, and brick colonnades with
elegant statuary overlooking romantic “courtyard” fountains. Everywhere there was riotous color from
hollyhocks, foxgloves, lupines, daisies, larkspurs, and other, more exotic
flowers:
In the center of the convention center was PHS’s information center, market, main exhibit, and a huge display
area where exhibitors showed off the plant specimens that they submitted for
judging. From what I had seen of this area during the past couple of
shows, I believe that this was one of the largest competition displays yet: there were plants that looked like they could have come from another planet, in
addition to orchids, ferns, cacti, and gesneriads (a family of plants that
include the popular African violets).
My particular favorites included the enormous rabbit’s foot
ferns, which were displayed in hanging baskets at least three feet across. PHS’s exhibit was nearby, separated from their market by a
wooden wall decorated with a green wall that was patterned after the Union Jack
flag; passing through this wall was a passageway that split the exhibit in two
halves.
On the right another green wall, made up of edible plants
such as Swiss chard and turnip greens, framed a sculpture of brightly-colored
wheelbarrows.
On the left was a small
patch of grass complete with a sheep statue; overhead was a wooden trellis,
hung below with a quirky assortment of lighting fixtures and glass globes, and
topped with a green roof from which a goat statue peered down at us!
The exhibit was framed with a wild border of gaily-colored
flowers through which we exited.
From there I went to see the educational exhibits, designed
and built by Philadelphia-area high schools and colleges. Among the exhibitors was my Alma mater,
Temple University!
Temple University Ambler’s Department of Landscape Architecture and Horticulture has designed and built exhibits for the
Philadelphia Flower Show since 1987; each year the junior class of landscape
architecture students design and build an exhibit as part of their Design/Build
Studio class, while the horticulture students grow the plants to be used in the
exhibit. The exhibits themselves,
products of each year’s research, design, hard work and cooperation between the
landscape architecture and horticulture departments, are a big success (but
then, I may be slightly biased).
Temple Ambler’s exhibit, WILDE! Cultivating wonder in everyday places, recreates
an abandoned urban lot, complete with chain link fencing and concrete rubble
gabion walls, that Nature has reclaimed as three different oases: ‘Tiger Eyes’
sumac, ninebark, herbs and grasses create a successional habitat atop the
gabion walls…
…which lead down to a wild apple orchard carpeted by
daffodils and ‘White Splendour’ windflowers.
From there a dilapidated wooden trellis drips rainwater into
a basin of crushed glass, on which climbs ‘Margarita’ carolina jessamine. The trellis leads the eye over to a bog fed by the
rainwater, which supports rushes, sweetgum trees, marsh marigold and several
cultivars of pitcher plants.
Gelsemium sempervirens 'Margarita'
Cornus sericea 'Cardinal', Juncus effusus 'Afro', and Rhododendron calendulaceum
Fothergilla gardenii 'Suzanne', among some Equisetum
The theme for next year’s Flower Show is “ARTiculture”, and
from the sounds of it, 2014 might be a year that you should plan to go!
Meanwhile, spring is steadily returning to Welkinweir. During my walk one sunny day around the
grounds, I saw that the Early Spring garden (near the Pinetum) was starting to
awaken, with a cheery scattering of winter aconite, crocuses (croci?), Narcissus ‘February Gold’,
and Iris ‘Katherine Hodgkins’.
Narcissus 'February Gold'
Iris 'Katherine Hodgkins'
Eranthus, a.k.a. aconite
Nearby, the hellebores coyly hid their faces from view…
Helleborus x orientalis
Helleborus foetidus
…you may need to stoop to view these flowers, but they’re well
worth it!
Along Azalea Lane, the Galanthus were in full bloom. The drifts of little snowdrops looked so
pretty in the dappled sunlight!
Be careful where you step along the lane: the Scilla have
begun to dot the grass with tiny splashes of periwinkle and white:
Farther along the path, the exotic Persian Ironwood,
Parrotia persica, had opened its many scarlet buds.
Now that the weather is becoming somewhat more spring-like,
more and more flowers are making their appearance. The Pieris shrubs have opened their lush clusters
of bell-like blooms, and I spied the gold of Cornelian cherry (Cornus mas) across the
entrance drive from the main house. Come
visit Welkinweir, and watch the gardens wake up!
