PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Bloom Philly, a regional decorating competition leading up to the Philadelphia Flower Show, kicks off on Monday.
During Bloom Philly, businesses throughout the region come alive with color. Owners use plants and flowers to decorate their spaces.
“There’s about 150 businesses that work with us and are in competition to decorate their store windows," said Sam Lemheney, chief of shows and events with the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. He detailed how they are expanding their categories this year to include restaurants.
“Create menu items, create drink items that really celebrate the flower show," he said.
“Restaurants can get involved, and they can be judged on their cocktails that have a theme connected to the flower show, and also menu items that are inspired by the flower show.”
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They are also adding a new "Streatery" decoration category.
“Streateries is where all these places have had to expand outside their doors...decorating those places outside with plants, containers, trees. So we’re judging those areas as well," said Lemheney.
“The florists, the event planners, we’re working with them on a new category, giving them an option to showcase their creativity, their talents. They haven’t really been able to work a lot during the pandemic because there have been no events, so we’re really giving him an opportunity to showcase their creativity.”
Many event planners are teaming up with other businesses to help bring some spring color to the area.
“Some of these event planners don’t actually have a retail location, so they’ll have a building or they’ll be decorating an entrance, or the outside of a building, or they’ll work with a different building that the client with them," Lemheney said.
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Lemheney believes that, judging by the number of inquiries they have received at PHS, gardening has exploded in popularity over the past year.
“How many new gardeners are there out there this year? It’s so amazing to see that business really booming and people have turned to plants, turned to gardening to get them through the pandemic.“
Judges will have until May 24 to determine the winners of the Bloom Philly decorating competition. That leads right into the Philadelphia Flower Show which begins June 5 at FDR Park.