Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Visitors will be transported to Holland
This year’s show to transport visitors to Holland
PHILADELPHIA >> There will be a lot of other types of plants and flowers, too, but when you go to this year’s Philadelphia Flower Show, expect to see plenty of tulips.
“We have 5,000 tulips just in the entrance garden alone,” said Sam Lemheney, Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s chief of shows & events. That fits in well with the “Holland: Flowering the World” theme.
“Holland has a huge history of flowers,” Lemheney said.
Tulips and flower bulbs have been associated with Holland for 500 years, he said.
“The Dutch are also very innovative when it comes to horticulture,” Lemheney said.
“From towering windmills, wooden shoes and delectable cheeses, to the whimsical bicycles, canals and vibrant tulip fields of the iconic Dutch landscape, the 2017 Flower Show will share the diverse stories of horticulture, innovative eco-design, and modern urban greening and sustainability efforts of the Netherlands,” show information says.
The Dutch government is sending a 36-foot-tall geodesic eco-dome, which will be in Philadelphia for its only North American appearance, Lemheney said. Visitors to the flower show will be able to walk inside it, he said.
All of the landscape designers in the show will have exhibits inspired by Holland, but there will also be some designers from Holland, he said.
Along with windmills, described in show information as “one of the earliest uses of natural energy,” the show will demonstrate the Dutch Wave movement, described in show information as “a natural and sustainable approach to landscape design.”
This year’s flower show runs March 11 to 19 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The show attracts about 250,000 visitors each year, according to show information.
Along with the flowers, the entrance garden will have three large windmills adorned with lights that will come to life with music, Lemheney said.
The large flower fields of Holland will also be re-created, although on a smaller scale, above the entrance garden, he said.
“What we did was turned it upside down and put it over your head,” Lemheney said.
Along with the exhibits, there are speakers and classes at the flower show, he said. Gardeners can come to the show and get inspiration for their own gardens at home, he said.
“It’s really fun and it’s a great place to get a lot of ideas,” Lemheney said.
The show will also feature a world market highlighting Holland, he said.
Make-and-take activities allow people to do things such as plant herb gardens or bulb gardens in a flower pot, then take the garden home to grow, he said.
For the first time this year, the flower show will also have a spa, he said.
People going to the spa will be able to do things such as make potpouri, eat chocolate or get hand, foot or shoulder massages, he said.
“No other country is as well known for its floral industry than the Netherlands, which fills the world with color,” show information says. “The Philadelphia Flower Show will transport guests to the rainbow landscapes of tulips, hyacinths and daffodils, and through the cutflower and bulb markets that have shaped Holland’s history and culture.”
The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and a group of volunteers planted 20,000 flower bulbs last fall in parts of Philadelphia, primarily along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Lemheney said.
Although those won’t be part of the flower show, the plants will bloom in the spring and will help beautify the city in future years, he said.
“They’ll keep coming up every year,” Lemheney said.
Proceeds from the flower show benefit yearround programs of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, including City Harvest, which creates green jobs and supports community gardens that raise fresh produce for families in need; Philadelphia LandCare, which maintains vacant land in the city; and Plant One Million, a campaign to restore tree canopy.