Exhibitors Put Final Touches On Flower Show Displays
By Steve Tawa
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - If the long, frigid winter has you longing for springtime, get a jump-start on those warmer thoughts this weekend at the Philadelphia Flower Show. It begins on Saturday at the Pennsylvania Convention Center for a 9-day run.
Now in its 184th year, this year's theme pays homage to an informal British word:
"Brilliant," show designer Sam Lemheney says the show floor will transport you to Central London. "It has great look of old architecture with Big Ben and the tower bridge, with some modern contemporary buildings."
A few sets down, you feel like you're in a dark and foggy "Jack the Ripper" streetscape.
Next to that, it's into the countryside and an old-fashioned cricket club, by Tom Morris and the folks at J. Downend Landscaping of Ridley Park, who put in 110 varieties of plants:
"The Downend Cricket Club happens to be an actual club in Bristol, England."
Jack Blandy of Stony Bank Nurseries in Glen Mills, Pa. dreamed up his own version of Hidcote Gardens, a famous outdoor setting in the Cotswolds, north of London, created by Major Lawrence Johnston, one of England's leading plantsmen:
"He created gardens that were walled rooms."
Mr. Blandy and his Stoney Bank Nurseries crew are five time "best in show" winners.
The Director of PHS Meadowbrook Farm, Chris Woods and his team are the folks who work in a series of greenhouses to fool the plants into bloom, at just the right time:
"We force most of the plants for the flower show, particularly all of the plants for the central feature."
