Philadelphia Flower Show

A fragrant breath of springtime welcomes visitors to the 1992 Philadelphia Flower Show, which opens next Sunday for a week's run at the Philadelphia Civic Center.Popular the world over, the show attracted over 200,000 visitors last year from all over the country and abroad. It is the oldest, most prestigious garden show in the United States and the largest indoor horticultural exhibition in the world.This year's theme, "Horizons For Discovery," celebrates gardening in America with more than 50 landscape exhibits representing the diversity of gardens across the continent.

Feeling a little winter-weary? Escape from the season of snow and ice to a refreshing look at spring at "Springtime in Paris," the 2011 Philadelphia International Flower Show that begins today at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. Featured in "1,000 Places to Visit Before You Die," Philly's flower show is a must-see for flower and garden lovers. Each year, at least 60 florists, professional landscapers and horticultural and educational organizations create breathtaking, full-scale gardens and floral displays.

Just when it seems that winter will never end, when it seems as if the cold grayness will never lift and the world will never bloom again, then comes the Philadelphia Flower Show. For the past 174 years, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society has been filling a cavernous arena in the city with millions of flowers, creating not just a late-winter oasis of greenery, but a magical place of beauty and imagination. "It is a spectacle," said Bartie Cole of Green-spring Valley, purveyor of an extraordinary garden of her own, who has been going to the flower show every year for more than a decade.

This year, the Philadelphia Flower Show has added "International" to its name and adopted "Passport to the World" as its theme. But the oldest, largest and most ambitious indoor flower show has always had "out of this world" as its reputation. Beginning Sunday and lasting eight days - just long enough so the blooms do not fade - the 181-year-old show will take an expected 250,000 visitors on a dizzying trip around the world. The voyage begins with a 28-foot hot-air balloon covered with 79,000 dried flowers that hovers over the entrance and the "Explorer's Garden," a display that harks back to the show's original purpose - to showcase exotic new plant discoveries.

The fragrances and colors of springtime around the world will blossom in harmony next weekend when the Philadelphia Flower Show once again opens its doors.Floral designers, landscape artists and horticulturists from the Netherlands, England, Japan, Italy and Belgium are bringing the latest gardening techniques from abroad to the prestigious eight- day event at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.In addition, more than 60 professional American nursery growers will show the newest plants, colors, themes and styles from around the United States at this international gardening exchange, touted as one of the oldest and largest indoor flower shows in the world.

Philadelphia Flower Show The Pennsylvania Convention Center becomes a giant garden March 5 as the famed Philadelphia Flower Show opens for a one-week run. Billed as the "world's largest indoor flower show," this year's event has 10 acres of blooming gardens, thousands of specimen plants, topiary, floral arrangements and miniature garden scenes by horticulturalists and designers. A marketplace will offer gardening tools, plants, bulbs, seeds and more. The flower show runs March 5-12 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Arch and 12th streets, Philadelphia.

St. Patrick's Day Parade You'll be seeing green at the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Alexandria, Va., on Saturday. Irish dancers in Celtic costumes, tartan-clad bands, politicians, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and others will participate in the parade, which kicks off at 12:30 p.m. at King and West streets. There will be a reviewing stand at North Royal Street. The parade concludes at 2:30 p.m. at King and Fairfax streets. Check out a classic car show and competition at 10 a.m. at North Pitt and King streets.

Philadelphia Flower Show in full bloom Visitors to this year's Philadelphia Flower Show will be taken on a trip to floral wonderlands across centuries and continents. Experience the geometric designs of ancient Egypt's canal gardens, the Mediterranean plantings of garden designer Penelope Hobhouse and the whimsical folly of Chanticleer, America's romantic pleasure garden. Your journey through the show - called "Great Gardeners of the World" - will also take you across acres of blooming back yards, front yards, terraces, side yards, streetscapes and sun rooms filled with ideas for the spring gardening season.

BloomersCome and welcome spring at the 1998 Philadelphia Flower Show. This indoor flower display introduces spring with an exquisite French theme, La Passion du Jardin (The Passion of the Garden).More than 60 floral exhibits and landscapes will fill the 10 acres of the show. Highlights include the "Paul Cezanne" rose and the delicate French country cottage of rose breeder Henri Delbard, adorned with his colorful and fragile roses.There also will be 2,000 horticultural entries in the amateur division of the show.

`Sept. 11 Photo Project' The Women in Military Service for America Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery is the first stop in the national tour of The Sept. 11 Photo Project, a photography exhibit of the September terrorist attacks. On view tomorrow through April 7, the exhibit includes more than 3,500 photographs, along with commentary, taken before, during and after the events of Sept. 11 by professional and amateur photographers from around the world. The project is designed not only as an art show, but also as an exhibit to communicate people's stories and experiences.

The Philadelphia Flower Show is always a floral spectacle and a welcome respite from winter. But this year, it will likely mean more to its quarter-million visitors. Brought low by economic hard times and a winter that seems, as all winters do, to drag on and on, those who spend a day in the city's cavernous Convention Center next week should feel transported. Literally. The show is titled "Bella Italia," and designer Sam Lemheney is attempting to carry visitors to the majestic gardens of ancient Rome, the lush hills of the Tuscan countryside, the romantic waters of Venice and the artful flora of Florence.

At just the moment when we think we can't endure another day, let alone another month, of cold weather, it is home-and-garden-show season. For the price of a ticket, we are drawn into warm, moist, sweet-smelling and cavernous buildings where, surrounded by blooming gardens, we can pretend summer has arrived. Double your pleasure this weekend with the opening of both the Philadelphia Flower Show - the granddaddy of them all - at the Philadelphia Convention Center and the Maryland Home & Garden Show at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium.

Long before 9/11, before war, before yellow ribbons that say "Support Our Troops," and long before red and blue states, the theme for the 2005 Philadelphia Flower Show was chosen. It would be "America the Beautiful," and the patriotic theme would be played out in flowers of red, white and blue. The Philadelphia Flower Show, March 6 to 13 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, is the granddaddy of all flower shows. Now in its 176th year, it is unmatched in longevity, scale, perfection and creativity, and it is such a monumental undertaking that planning begins at least five years in advance.

St. Patrick's Day Parade You'll be seeing green at the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Alexandria, Va., on Saturday. Irish dancers in Celtic costumes, tartan-clad bands, politicians, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and others will participate in the parade, which kicks off at 12:30 p.m. at King and West streets. There will be a reviewing stand at North Royal Street. The parade concludes at 2:30 p.m. at King and Fairfax streets. Check out a classic car show and competition at 10 a.m. at North Pitt and King streets.

THE PHILADELPHIA Flower Show is the granddaddy of all flower shows. Big, old, prestigious. And an enormous, magical spectacle. It is as if God moved the Garden of Eden into the Philadelphia Convention Center for a week every winter, just when His poor creations are losing hope that spring will ever come. Those of us who like to think of ourselves as gardeners can leave the Philadelphia Flower Show feeling pretty discouraged, like we ought to plow under our flower beds and pave the backyard.

Just when it seems that winter will never end, when it seems as if the cold grayness will never lift and the world will never bloom again, then comes the Philadelphia Flower Show. For the past 174 years, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society has been filling a cavernous arena in the city with millions of flowers, creating not just a late-winter oasis of greenery, but a magical place of beauty and imagination. "It is a spectacle," said Bartie Cole of Green-spring Valley, purveyor of an extraordinary garden of her own, who has been going to the flower show every year for more than a decade.

THE PHILADELPHIA Flower Show is the granddaddy of all flower shows. Big, old, prestigious. And an enormous, magical spectacle. It is as if God moved the Garden of Eden into the Philadelphia Convention Center for a week every winter, just when His poor creations are losing hope that spring will ever come. Those of us who like to think of ourselves as gardeners can leave the Philadelphia Flower Show feeling pretty discouraged, like we ought to plow under our flower beds and pave the backyard.

The Philadelphia Flower Show is always a floral spectacle and a welcome respite from winter. But this year, it will likely mean more to its quarter-million visitors. Brought low by economic hard times and a winter that seems, as all winters do, to drag on and on, those who spend a day in the city's cavernous Convention Center next week should feel transported. Literally. The show is titled "Bella Italia," and designer Sam Lemheney is attempting to carry visitors to the majestic gardens of ancient Rome, the lush hills of the Tuscan countryside, the romantic waters of Venice and the artful flora of Florence.

`Sept. 11 Photo Project' The Women in Military Service for America Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery is the first stop in the national tour of The Sept. 11 Photo Project, a photography exhibit of the September terrorist attacks. On view tomorrow through April 7, the exhibit includes more than 3,500 photographs, along with commentary, taken before, during and after the events of Sept. 11 by professional and amateur photographers from around the world. The project is designed not only as an art show, but also as an exhibit to communicate people's stories and experiences.

Philadelphia Flower Show in full bloom Visitors to this year's Philadelphia Flower Show will be taken on a trip to floral wonderlands across centuries and continents. Experience the geometric designs of ancient Egypt's canal gardens, the Mediterranean plantings of garden designer Penelope Hobhouse and the whimsical folly of Chanticleer, America's romantic pleasure garden. Your journey through the show - called "Great Gardeners of the World" - will also take you across acres of blooming back yards, front yards, terraces, side yards, streetscapes and sun rooms filled with ideas for the spring gardening season.