THE PHILADELPHIA FLOWER SHOW:STILL TIME

 "Brilliant" is the theme, and brilliant is the execution at the Philadelphia Flower Show on until Sunday 3/10 til 6:pm. All things British are celebrated, particularly the gardens.

Lots of glitz and glamour,

not exactly my style, but for simpler folk there's always the Philly Water Department who brings visitors back to earth with their not-so-British all-sunflower exhibit, The Power of Poop, extolling the virtues of recovering waste water for alternative energy.

My favorite garden entry (above) is by Raymond Evison Clematis, a well-known breeder from the UK, showing selections for multi-blooming vines which flower throughout the summer. The display is medium sized, modest in scope, calming yet amazing. Evison forced me to add  clematis to my mental list for purchase this spring, and I'll certainly go to his site to see where I can buy them here.
www.raymondevisonclematis.com.

Before I leave the show I must pay homage to Roberston's Flowers of Chestnut Hill, designers near and dear to my heart for sending me brilliant flower bouquets (as pre-ordered by Ben) every two months during that awful year when he served in Vietnam.(Robertson's display, below)

After wandering the floor, when you're ready to sit, check out one of the free lectures at the show. As luck would have it, on the day I went Ellen Zachos fit right in with the Flower Show theme by giving a brilliant lecture on the topic of her new book,"Backyard Foraging". She signed many books after her talk, but were people really after the book or those yummy cookies with foraged ingredients that she offered with each purchase?

To learn more about what's on at the show for the last few days visit the Pennsylvania Hort. site.

DON'T I GET A SAY?

When I hung out of my office window clutching my Canon Rebel EOS, I could grab a shot of the climbing 'New Dawn' rose draping the balcony across the street. Granted 'New Dawn' blooms for about three weeks in June, then never again that year, but the sight was so lovely it inspired me to plant my own in my all container garden on our 18th floor. I intermingled it with
a small bell-shaped
Clematis integrifolia
'Rooguchi' that used
the rose canes for its
personal trellis.(double
click on the image to
enlarge the Clematis)
Then in spring of 2009
I looked across 80th St.
with great dismay. The
owners of the terrace
garden had removed
the rose WITHOUT MY
PERMISSION. It's my
borrowed scenery, not
just their garden. Don't
I get a say? This spring
their terrace had a few
small trees and some
splotches of crimson
that looked like geran-
iums. I DIDN'T VOTE
FOR THAT. Isn't this a democracy? I propose that if I have to look at the garden daily and it's my only view, I should have a voice. Do you agree, or will this issue just go the way of term limits for Mayors in the city of New York?