String Gardens and Terrariums Win Crowds at Philly Flower Show March 22, 2012

This jaded, cynical designer has a short attention span for the same old same old. I am frequently yearning to see something new and inspirational in the world of gardening. So, one of the things I look for when I spend time at a large garden show like the Philadelphia Flower Show is a creative new discovery. I was fortunate to have stumbled on more than one AND HOW, at this show!

The “String Garden” or “Kokedama” was one of the hottest  trends that I saw at the show. To be accurate, anything you could hang with a plant and a string was HOT!

One fantastic vendor, City Planter is a very popular urban garden store in Philadelphia. They had a funky booth selling this latest whimsical trend among many others that made them a hot destination at this impressive 10 acre sized show.

The City Planter shop featured these stylish string gardens for customers to see right out at eye level. Essentially, these are a moss ball with a simple single plant featured on top and wrapped to hold together with fishing line or wire then simply suspended with a strand of string. I’ve seen them hung from jute twine, wire or a waxed twine as well.

Plants options in the string gardens were varied to accommodate your light and moisture requirements, from succulents and herbs to ferns and polka-dot plants. If you would like to see a demonstration of how these are made, this post has some great directions.

String Gardens were originally brought to us by Dutch artist Fedor Van der Valk. You can read more about the artist and see some fantastic photos of his creative suspended gardens in 2 articles from Garden Design Magazine written by Claire Lui. The first article posted in January of this year and then highlights posted again here in March 2012.

I was impressed at how varied the options were in the plants that they were offering in the string gardens. String Gardens are a fun and creative option for a plant craft to try that won’t cost a fortune. Imagine the possibilities of plants that you could try!

This popular show shop also offered some of the most sophisticated little glass terrariums I’ve ever seen. A rectangular glass box with an opening at the top for planting and a tiny hole in back to hang from a nail. They had added some decorative rock in showy layers, some ornamental moss and a few air plants, voila! Any beginning gardener could easily keep this alive and in style too.

Also among the fashionable offerings from City Planter were the extremely popular Moss Rocks by David Spain, as seen on Martha Stewart recently. Irregularly shaped, small ceramic rock shapes, glazed in trendy colors, sport a little tuffet of moss on top like a miniature crew cut. These charming, colorful living sculptures are an adorable little bit of Zen for your desk, counter top and coffee table.

Chive.com offered a beautiful and sophisticated booth featuring simple design that shows off the beauty of the flower. Hanging vases on a string were a very popular item as well as the ceramic 60′s style throwback hanging vases.

Cloches were also everywhere at the show, next to Terrariums these were one of the trends at the show that would draw the most passionate response that I would over hear from attendees. Cloches are easy to create and change a look on a table top in moments on a whim.

This lovely little cloche display was on only a small part of the charming and popular shop at the Philly Flower Show set up by Jerry Fritz and his team from Linden Hill Gardens in Ottsville, Pennsylvania.

Possibly one of my favorite finds at the whole Philly Flower Show however was the booth from Twig Terrariums. They not only had the String Gardens but the Terrariums and Miniatures were literally the ONLY ones in the whole market/vendor portion of the show and they were simply WOW!

Each little world was depicting actions and characters not only in a terrarium environment, but in a completely new, contemporary light. I have truly never seen anything like it. It was enchanting to say the least. I’m not sure the pictures do it justice. Yes, I LOVED them THAT much. If you want to read a great book about Terrariums, this one is beautiful!

Small wonders were abundant at this ginormous show in the unusually warm spring of 2012. Even this old designer found out that there really ARE new things out there that still make this gardener’s heart flutter.

2012 Philadelphia International Flower Show Goes Hawaiian March 16, 2012

Recently I was extremely fortunate to be invited to work at a good friends vendor booth in the 2012 Philadelphia Flower Show. In the off-season of nursery and landscape design work, this was a fabulous bit of good fortune! My friend Barbara Sanderson, owner and artist at Glass Gardens NW sells her glass garden art all over the country and this show was a HUGE opportunity to show off her glass to another sector of the market. So, I took this fortuitous moment to blog about the show for those of you around the country who might not be able to go to such a remarkable event. This will be the first of a few different posts covering the show.

The largest indoor flower show in the world blooms in Philadelphia every March at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The country’s premier landscape designers and florists are featured and turn 10 acres of exhibit space into a floral fantasy world with exotic plants and eclectic designs.

The economic impact of the Philadelphia International Flower Show extends much longer than the eight-day event and far beyond the walls of the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

• $61 million economic impact
• The equivalent of 637 full-time jobs
• $8 million in city, state and federal tax revenue
• 25,000 hotel room nights

The Philadelphia International Flower Show has been a Philadelphia tradition since 1829. The Show has evolved from a gathering of professional growers showcasing their prized plants to the largest and oldest indoor flower show in the nation. Revenues generated by the Philadelphia Flower Show help support the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s outreach program Philadelphia Green. The program provides technical support and encouragement to thousands of residents, community groups, and public and private agencies who work together to transform Philadelphia’s communities and public landscapes into vibrant green spaces.

More than 150 vendors, from across the United States and as far away as the country of Wales, sell plants, flowers, orchids, sheds (even a small barn!), floral-inspired furniture from the romantic to the practical, artwork, unique food and garden-related crafts and supplies.

Growers and horticulturists from around the world showcase their prized plants and compete for prestigious honors.  More than 580 artistic and horticultural classes are exhibited with more than 2,000 entries in classes ranging from miniature settings to pressed plants.

There is no way I could possibly do justice to the show in one post, so I made this fun video. It’s my first time making a video like this- I had a blast! I hope you get a wee little taste of what some of the show was like. I have huge quantities of pics still to share over the coming weeks.

Since it’s unseasonably warm in many parts of the country, you may already have Spring, for those of us in the cold areas like Seattle, this is a bit of a tropical respite from our rain, hail, snow, rain, hail snow scenario!  Let’s all raise a glass to toast to the beginning of Spring. Cheers!