The show’s theme in 2007 was Ireland and its gardens. Each show has acres of displays by landscape firms from around the country, every one showing creative ideas.  Above is a simple recirculating fountain with a totally natural look.

This massive display showed what can be done in the garden with recycled glass.  

The harp and its mound greeted attendees upon entry, giving plenty of punch.

One of the most exquisite big displays was a stone church ruin with a rose garden.

Saint Fiacre is the patron saint of gardening. He left Ireland in the 7th Century for France, where he joined a monastery. Granted a swatch of forested land, he asked for open land, and the legend says when he was told he could have as much land as he could till in one day that trees and bushes miraculously uprooted everywhere he touched the soil with his spade.

I’m including this for my friends who grow cactus. Yes, there’s a Philadelphia Cactus and Succulent Society. A good bit of the show is about competitions for best specimens, best arrangements, best table decorations, best room decorations, best miniature displays, etc. To be recognized by the judges of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society is a great honor, and the organization works every day of the year in schools and in public education. Many displays teach conservation. The annual Flower Show is only one of the Society’s major activities.

Another winner. There’s always a plant of a kind you’ve never seen before.

And there are always orchids of surpassing beauty.

The individual plants that make the cut and are displayed can be viewed up close.

There’s also a competition for decorative arts utilizing plant materials, so there are many framed examples of pictures pieced together with petals and fibers.

The view behind this shimmering fountain gives a sense of the size of the exhibition hall.

Too over the top for your taste? Keep moving. Something pleasing is just steps away.

Perhaps a quaint Irish cottage with a splashing waterfall.

Wouldn’t you love a garden like this to welcome you home? It won a big silver cup.

So, the first of three last photos — from 2008!  The theme was Jazz and New Orleans, to give us a reminder of all the heritage that Hurricane Katrina threatened. This bayou scene had swirling fog moving on the water below the mannequin.  

A silver bowl went to this New Orleans front yard display.

Frogs in their finery. Perhaps now you understand why I like to spend a late winter day in Philadelphia each year.