3.02.2024

An Early Dose of Spring: The Philadelphia Flower Show

I'm not one of those daughters that hopelessly adores her daddy, I mean, you'd never see us at one of those father/daughter dances back in elementary school. He's not a touchy-feely type of person (just look at the photo--I don't think he ever smiles in them) so I think we've had trouble relating to each other when I was growing up. But I do love him, after all, he's my dad, though I'm sure he won't like me posting this photo. Oh well, that's what daughters like me do to our dads.
However, we do have at least one thing in common--gardening. My dad introduced me to gardening, and some of my earliest memories are of working in our garden with him, watching the corn get taller and taller, searching for potatoes in the dirt, planting tomatoes. We had inheirited a pretty large garden from the previous owners of my childhood home, and for years we had a nice variety of veggies growing back there, along with multiple apple trees (the apples of which my dad had pressed into cider at a local orchard).

Anyway, the relevance of this is that my dad and I had a day out together yesterday to the Philadelphia Flower Show. It's quite amazing, all of the creative displays of flowers and plants in the convention center. The theme was "Passport to the World" and I think this year's show was the best I had seen (having been to 3-4 of them).
The balloon above was the welcoming centerpiece, made of roses and pansies. The color combo is great! I loved the idea of a global theme with various landscaping companies working with different countries. Nearly everything is made out of flowers, leaves, and other natural items. Here are some of the highlights:

South Africa

Germany (beer garden)

Japan

China

Polar theme

calla lilies captured in ice

Thailand

and my absolute favorite, The Indian Wedding


There were even a few Crooked Houses there (I'd love one for our backyard, though they're too pricey).
There are also lots of displays of botanical illustrations, window box displays, ikebana (Japanese flower arrangement), kids' gardens, fashion made out of flowers--the amount of stuff to see is incredible. I really enjoyed seeing the artwork that people made out of pressed flowers. Each of these pictures is made entirely of plant material.
the ones made by kids are really amazing. Definitely something I'd like to try with SoJo someday.
My dad bought me some seeds for our upcoming veggie garden and also bought S some really great books by Lois Ehlert (she illustrated Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom), Planting a Rainbow,
I love the Eric Carle-esque illustrations and the focus on plants and veggies. I look forward to reading these to SoJo prior to our gardening project this year.

After walking around for hours, we decided to walk to Old City to get some Indian food at Karma (another commonality between my dad and I. My mom dislikes Indian food, so we took advantage of our mutual enjoyment). It was quite tasty and worth the long walk and gritty wind blowing through the streets.
Took the train home, gave SoJo lots of hugs, and called it a wonderful day. It was quite pleasant when I got home, being truly tired from miles of walking, sipping ginger tea on the couch, letting my bones sink into the cushions. A good day with my dad. Thanks Dad!


8 comments:

Tylerpants said...

Thanks for sharing! I was able to go once a few years ago and loved walking through there. =)

Braley Mama said...

Wow so breathtaking. I kill all plants, I tried a garden and killed squash!!!! Horrible. But I love plants and flowers and art and dads:O) What a great day!

Vic | UPrinting said...

The bonsai and the Japanese garden is my personal pick. I love the minimalist feel of the bonsai. The calla lilies on ice were amazing too. It was pretty artistic. I love it!

TheEclecticElement said...

Oh my gosh....You go to THE coolest things!! Seriously, that looks like such an incredible thing to witness-I'm not big into gardening but I can surely appreciate a sight like that ^.^

Muthering Heights said...

What a sweet father/daughter day for you too!!

The flowers look amazing!!!

JDaniel4's Mom said...

What amazing flower displays! I love the elephant. The books you picked up look wonderful!

Thanks for stopping by.

Naomi said...

We're supposed to go to our local garden show this weekend and somehow I don't think it will come close to the opulence you witnessed! Wow!

Anonymous said...

Keep posting stuff like this i really like it

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