PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society unveiled a first look of the 196th Philadelphia Flower Show, “Gardens of Tomorrow,” coming in March. The iconic annual event promises a hopeful look toward a sustainable future full of growth, beauty and vitality.
Mayor Cherelle Parker says the theme is a call to action, which she ties to her oft-repeated campaign promise: to make Philadelphia the safest, cleanest, greenest, big city in the nation.
“This Flower Show will help me as the mayor continue to affirm the power and the value of flowers,” she said Thursday at the Franklin Institute, where PHS officials revealed new renderings of the show’s exhibits and spaces.
The first thing visitors will experience is a garden called Futura Florentia—a phrase borrowed from Latin meaning “a blooming, flourishing future”—said Seth Pearsoll, vice president and creative director.
Visitors will enter the Flower Show's “insane, evocative world” through a tunnel formed by a pastel canopy of 21 okame cherry trees.
“This space is all about making a stunning, bold, captivating first impression. It’s a stunning mix of garden and floral and water and light and sound elements,” Pearsoll said.
“It’s essentially a garden dream world with these evocative touches of this fantastic botanical future.”
The Philadelphia Flower Show will run March 1 – 9, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. More information is at phsonline.org.
With the price of admission, visitors will have access to “Know to Grow,” a series of educational sessions making a return this year, on topics including garden design, vegetables, native plants, houseplants and container gardening; and children can plant seedlings and make Lego masterpieces in a space called Kids Cocoon.
Visitors can dress up their experience with wearable, Instagram-ready crowns of fresh flowers, available for purchase.
For an additional fee, visitors can work with artisans to create their own crowns—or Flower Show candles, custom scents, bouquets, terrariums, vases, jewelry and more.
In addition, the Flower Show will offer early-morning photography tours, an all-ages native and exotic butterfly show, and container gardening workshops that will leave visitors with new creations to care for at home.
And on Saturday, March 8, the Flower Show hosts “Flowers After Hours,” a space-themed, 21+ dance party blending ’80s and ’90s nostalgia with music curated by SNACKTIME, the live band featured on Jason Kelce’s ESPN show, “They Call it Late Night.” Expect an eclectic vision of the future, including alien encounter photo ops, interstellar cocktails, an otherworldly fashion show, and beats by DJs Muhammad Carr, Lady B and Touchtone, and Val Fleury.
Money from ticket sales goes to support Pennsylvania Horticultural Society programs all through the year.