Dining by the waterside. I'd pay to sit there for a while with a glass of wine! ;->
Bella Italia! Share your PHILLY FLOWER SHOW photos!
Waterfall in the woods with statues.
Close up of the waterfall and one of the statues.
This was so beautiful, but soooo hard to capture in its entirety, due to both lighting issues, and size. A portion of the Doges palace and the wedding gondola, representing Venice.
Another stunning exhibit, and this is just a part of it. I'm guessing it's Rome. (I should have taken notes along with the pictures) We missed the piano entertainment - did anybody else hear it?
It might be hard to tell from the photo, but this arrangement had to be at least 5 feet tall, or even more. Stunning!
Neptune and his fountain were right around the corner from the massive floral arrangement.
Ah - Milan. This signorina was eyecatching - and probably very flammable - in her gown. ;->
Loved the shape and colors of this purse. I was never able to get close to the shoes to get a picture.
Another pic of the signorina that HollyAnn & Ric posted earlier - I first saw this from the back... Those are butterflies on her train. (Not live!)
And then we saw the front!
Wouldn't this be a great hat for Easter?
Or dusting the ceiling? ;-)
Everything is fabulous Critter. Thank you for sharing these with us. So glad that you and Terry had fun.
Ruby
Incredible tour! DD, that "Caribbean mermaid' is one muscular lady! LOL Looks like the exhibitors have really outdone themselves this year! It's always amazing to me, the imagination of those designing the displays and the scale of it all - look at the size of that palm tree in Terri's photo of the pergola, can you imagine trucking that thing to the show and THEN getting it inside for the display?? I agree though, it's unrealistic to think that anyone could have a garden that "really" looks like these do. I remember years ago, my first visit to the NE Flower Show in Boston, thinking how beautiful the Delphiniums were combined with the Rhododendrons, etc. Back then I was a VERY inexperienced gardener, heck I didn't even know the difference between an annual and a perennial and had absolutely no idea that some of the plants in the displays would never be blooming at the same time, not to mention that they weren't even hardy for me! For years I was in love with Redbud trees after seeing them in bloom at the show and never understood why I couldn't find one at the local garden center - they weren't hardy in Zone 4 :(
Wonderful photos everyone, too many to comment on all of them, but I'm not complaining! I am going to have to search for information on the artist who created that incredible tree sculpture in Critter's post - I love it!
Found it! I really like the Copper Sienna finish http://www.treescompany.org/coppersiennatrees.html If I only had a wall that was large enough to display one!
nice show with my coffee... thanks for sharing everyone
Weeping Red Bud. Cercis Texensis Traveller. I was writing down the name of this tree and some guy came up and started telling me that they are very rare and expensive. Kept going on and on about it not in an sharing or informational way but more like don't bother writing down the name you can afford it or find it. His attitude was pretty annoying and since I didn't stop writing he seemed to think he needed to tell me again. LOL
What a beautiful specimen! Holly, Traveller is a newer cultivar of Cercis canadensis ssp. texensis (Texas Redbud) and not quite as hardy as our native Redbud - Zone 6 versus Zone 5 - but would work for you. If you do have trouble finding it, as this "gentleman" suggested, look for 'Lavender Twist aka Covey' http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/53336/. It's usually more readily available and has the same wonderful weeping form. I think the main difference is the ultimate height, maybe a foot shorter and if I remember correctly Traveller's new foliage has a hint of purple?
Thanks I will keep my eye open. I have just the place for one I don't have any weeping trees, have very few trees other than the Evergreens actually on my property. With the solar house and the pool we didn't plant many but I am starting to plant more as I just love the shade plants.
Debby, Wasn't that "mermaid" kinda scary-looking? As Critter said, it was an odd exhibit. And really dark in the center - hard to figure it out.
What Critter's photo of the beautiful metal sculpure didn't show was how MANY of those beautiful metal trees they had for sale. Every year I drool over them, every year I wonder where I'd put one, and every year I think maybe I'd have to build another house... LOL. I think they had some that weren't really huge... I'm just sayin'. ;->
HollyAnn, how annoying of that stupid vendor (assuming that is what he was?). He should have been THRILLED that you were interested, in these scary economic times. I somehow missed seeing that tree - it's beautiful!
And thanks Debby for the info on a less expensive, but similar model.
Just going through my photos prior to posting them, and seeing everyone else's pictures, makes me think I need a two-day visit to the show. First to "see" everything (and shop), and second, to see what I missed... oh yeah, and shop! ;-)
OK, here's the last batch. I swear if I lived a little bit closer, I'd go back... Sigh...
Here's another hat. Made entirely out of sunflower seeds! I'm surprised that ninja squirrels didn't break into the building to feast on this one. :-)
Being a Pisces, I love all things water-related. This fountain caught my eye - it's certainly different!
This next series is a little bit blurry, but it was so cool, I have to share. This gorgeous fountain amid the hydrangeas and colored stone is what first got my attention. Then I noticed all the wine bottles ...
and looked up, and saw that they had wine bottles made out of flowers! (Pansies) How cool was that? A bottle of red, and a bottle of Chianti!
Here's a shot from the front, with the sunflowers in the bucket (along with an empty bottle of wine.) Then, looking at the bottles on the ground, I realized there was another "flower bottle", laying on its side, just to the left of the sunflowers.
So I backed up as far as I could with the crowds swirling around, and tried to take a picture of the entire scene. Not really possible, but you get the idea.
Finally, here's a pic that shows the bottle of white, with the spilled wine in front! Very clever and well done, IMHO.
Moving on, here is the view inside those intricate gates, of which Terri has posted a pic.
A small portion of another amazing display.
A close up from the same lovely garden...
One more water feature...
Wisteria by an ancient temple ruin...Sensory overload! Smelled divine...
And last but not least, for my Ferrari-loving DH, an al fresco dining area with the Prancing Horse. I do have to admit that the car fender looked "different" to me, but heck, it was red, and had the symbol on the hubcap, and there are many models of Ferraris. Well... when I showed it to him, DH IMMEDIATELY said "That's a Porsche 911 fender AND wheel". Oops. ;-)
It was a great show, but then, it's always great. I hope anyone who hasn't had a chance to go will have the opportunity to get there one of these years! We're within driving distance for a day trip, but we're always amazed at how far away people have come. While leaving our hotel parking lot, we saw a couple from Ontario, Canada who'd driven down!
Love the photos!! Love the colors!!
We bought this Weeping Pussy Willow, Salix Caprea Pendula. It's actually a bonsai that won't get much bigger. When we purchased it it looked like this:
. . . . . and now it looks like this: ---just beautiful starbursts of color :o)
I who love all things ocean related did not enjoy the Atlantis Display You would look at something and see this rather pretty part but the other part was ugly. The rather pretty mermaid had a wire skull for a face none of it did much for me. Some interesting plants but wasn't impressed I think they could have made this a really beautiful display and didn't. Just not my taste.
This display inspired my small purchase, it was much nicer than my pic shows.
Thought I'd make one of those stone troughs and do a rock garden.
Holly, I absolutely agree with you on the Atlantis display - it was almost scary. Loved the colors they used for the structures, but that was about it. I think Critter had the same opinion.
Almost like someone's version of a nightmare!
Great plan for the rock garden in the trough. The friend I went to the show with used to work at Homestead Gardens near Annapolis, and she took a hypertufa course there. Said it was very easy to do - she's promising to give me my own seminar - sometime! ;-)
Snug,
I saw those weeping pussy willows, and was intrigued - now after seeing your photo, I sure wish I had bought one! Another reason for more than a one-day visit to this show...
Did you say on the other thread that you'd gone on Sunday (Opening Day)? How was it? We've always assumed it would be horribly crowded, and have always gone during the week... but maybe it's just crowded during 'prime time' every day?
Yes, on Sunday it was quite crowded--frequently walking sideways. We got there about 9:30 a.m. and it wasn't too bad this early, however, by noon it was hard to walk through the aisles. In any event, Sunday was the only day I could go and I was glad I went! Snug :o)