Philadelphia is ready for a British invasion.
But this time, it won’t be about music, as it was in the 1960s, when British rock groups like The Beatles and Rolling Stones stormed the nation.
Instead, our friends from across the pond will share their love of horticulture and the beauty it has brought to our lives at the 2013 Philadelphia Flower Show, the largest flower show in the world.
The 184th annual show, Saturday-March 10 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, will pay tribute to Great Britain, the one country that has had more influence on how we garden than any other in the world.
“Great Britain makes a great flower show theme, because gardening is a huge part of their culture,” says show designer Sam Lemheney.
Show presenter Pennsylvania Horticultural Society has partnered with Britain’s Royal Horticultural Society to ensure it would exhibit some of the best ideas Great Britain has to offer, from its colorful, free-flowing English cottage gardens and the perfectly manicured landscapes of Buckingham Palace to high-yielding vegetable gardens.
A goal of the show is to inspire gardeners to take home ideas to try in their own gardens and landscapes, Lemheney says. “And it’s especially easy to be inspired by Britain, because its temperatures and growing conditions are similar to ours, particular here in this part of the Northeast.”
Sharing a similar climate made it possible for major exhibiting nurseries to grow flowers here rather than importing them, says Lemheney.
But that doesn’t mean less work goes into preparing for the show, he adds. Forcing flowers and landscaping plants to bloom weeks before spring arrives is a science that requires nursery growers to artificially produce the climate conditions the plants need.
For centuries, Britain has collected cultivars from around the world to incorporate into its gardens and landscapes. So you can expect to see a broad variety of plants and flowers in the exhibits, including the tulips, daffodils, rhododendrons and azaleas that we look forward to in spring.
Whatever your cup of tea — gathering ideas that will inspire you to garden or simply enjoying the sight and fragrance of beautiful flowers — you’ll find it at the show, Lemheney says.
Nearly four dozen major exhibits by the region’s top landscapers will explore Britain’s heritage and culture, from royal events to fictional ones, such as the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party.
Among events planned for opening day on Saturday is a presentation by Mark Lane, gardens manager for Buckingham Palace and the Royal household.
Other nationally and internationally known speakers include: Raymond J. Evison, a nurseryman, lecturer, author, photographer and founder of the Guernsey Clematis Nursery, which introduced more than 100 clematis species cultivars; Melinda Myers, television/radio host, author and columnist, and Barbara Damrosch, weekly Washington Post columnist known as the “queen of organic growers.”
Two celebrities will be there for meet and greets — kitchen and homes expert Sandra Lee, 5:30-7 p.m. March 7, and “The Real Housewives of New York” star Ramona Singer, 2-4 p.m. March 9.
You’ll find gardening experts from the Lehigh Valley at the show, too. Sue Tantsits and Louise Schaefer, co-owners of Edge of the Woods Native Plant Nursery, will present “Bring Life to your Landscape with Native Plants” at 11 a.m. Tuesday.
As you enter the Convention Center, you’ll be greeted by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s impressive exhibit featuring fragrant English roses and a digitally enhanced rendition of Big Ben. Don’t miss a 21-foot-long green wall planted in a Union Jack pattern.
Lemheney hopes the impact will be “Brilliant,” the title of this year’s show. Brilliant is a word used by the British to describe something that’s inventive, dazzling and extraordinary, and what could be more extraordinary than seeing how some of our country’s top landscape designers and florists can turn the convention center’s 10 acres of concrete into a floral fantasyland with a British Twist?
It’s not the first time the flower show has spotlighted England, says Lemheney. But this tribute won’t be like anything you’ve seen in the past. Instead you’ll see the traditional, centuries-old concepts with modern twist — cleaner lines and bolder use of color, he says.
You’ll also have more time to see the show. It will open a day early — Saturday rather than Sunday.
Clarksville, TN – On February 23rd and 24th, the Clarksville-Area Chamber of Commerce held their fourth annual Home and Garden show at the Foy Fitness Center on 
