Five things not to miss at the 2025 Philadelphia Flower Show

Annie believed it would bring the sun, James Bond thought it would never die, and Led Zeppelin wondered how it could ever follow today — tomorrow, that most hopeful of days. And at this year’s Philadelphia Flower Show, gardeners brought tomorrow to life, today.

The 2025 theme of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s show, now in its 196th year, is “Gardens of Tomorrow,” and exhibitors from around the region and across the country worked with that concept in many ways, from imagining evolutions in the horticulture industry to exploring the sense of optimism that planting a seed brings.

Some participants undoubtedly understood the assignment, like Schaffer Designs of Philadelphia, whose exhibit, “The Nexus,” “represents the intersection of natural and urban landscapes.” Awash in neon lighting, the display incorporated test tubes and face-transforming LED masks. Looking at it felt like being in a scene straight out of Blade Runner.

But the connection of other exhibits to theme was a bit more tenuous. Jennifer Designs of Mullica Hill, a standout at previous shows, created “Welcoming Wildlife Home,” a large and intricate dinner tableau featuring animals and insects made of flora as the guests. While it was stunning, I was stumped as to how it related to this year’s theme, even after reading the accompanying placard.

I got a sneak peek of the show, which runs through March 9 at the Convention Center, during a media and members preview on Friday. I wasn’t as impressed by the entrance garden as I’ve been in previous years, but there was still plenty to enjoy.

Here are the top five things, in no particular order, that I recommend checking out if you go.

In “Bloom Where You Are Planted,” students from Lankenau Environmental Science Magnet High School in Upper Roxborough created a living classroom where “green is not just a textbook, it is a way of life.” Here, students made of moss and adorned with flowers learn about aquaponics in a classroom where the dirt floor is dotted with tree stumps and the fish tanks are stocked with real goldfish.

This is the first year Lankenau students have participated in the Flower Show, and their theme was partially inspired by an aquaponics lesson they had in school, said Aliyah Clark, 17, a senior from Northeast Philly.

“We were really thinking of what we wanted classrooms to look like in the future,” Clark said. “We are a high school, so we just wanted to represent what we think school should look like.”

A+++

I’m a sucker for a Philly-themed display — and orchids — so Wyndmoor-based Robertson’s Flowers & Events’ exhibit, “Tending Our Roots,” which blends both, was right up my little cobblestone alley.

Featuring a cutout backdrop of the Philadelphia skyline at sunset, the exhibit turns plant pedestals into tiny skyscrapers (with lighted windows) that support vases of orchids and other flowers.

The clouds in the sky above contain air plants and a mirror in the shape of a mother holding a child’s hand, in which guests can view themselves, that hearkens to the exhibit’s “playful visual interpretation of the proverb ‘One generation plants the trees; another gets the shade.’”

Keep your eyes peeled for the LOVE sculpture, which appears in the exhibit, too.

Turning artificial intelligence on its (nonexistent) head, Delaware Valley University’s exhibit, “Into the Clouds,” imagines that in the year 2150, humans explore landscapes through virtual reality. Then, the exhibit brings those virtual landscapes to real life.

Each of the exhibit’s five habitats, from a coral reef to a prairie grassland, list which sights, sounds, scents, and touches would come with that VR experience. The boreal forest, which is covered in “snow” that resembles fluffy clouds (and is probably just stuffing), is particularly lovely, and kids will enjoy trying to find all the tiny frogs and birds hidden in the tropical rain forest scene.

In a massive convention hall that can feel cold and vast, this exhibit artfully uses large backdrops to transport viewers out of the hall and into these habitats. It’s something I’d like to see more exhibitors incorporate.

Posters around the display talk of “The healing power of nature” and why we need it in our lives, making the irony of the exhibit abundantly clear. The future these Delaware Valley students have imagined — where all of our interactions with nature are artificial — is decidedly not the future they want, or humanity needs.

I’m not going to lie. When I first heard the theme of this year’s show, my mind immediately went to Bio-Dome, the 1996 movie starring Pauly Shore. So I was thrilled when I saw a biodome on the convention hall floor.

The company that makes this 22-foot geodesic structure may call it an EkoDome, but I will not.

The interior of the dome is decorated with ferns and other flora, and inside are large screens showing stunning time-lapse films by PLANTPOP of flowers blooming and dying and of seeds sprouting and taking root in the soil.

Calming music provides a serene soundtrack that makes this a space of tranquillity on the otherwise bustling convention hall floor.

While many visitors attend the Flower Show to smell the roses (and tulips, orchids, and lilacs), if the smell of death is more your thing, this year’s show has something for you, too.

In the Horticourt, where gardeners submit their prized plants for judging, there are three tall, lean, alien-looking plants — one towering at least 3 or 4 feet high — called konjac (a.k.a. voodoo lily or devil’s tongue). They are a cousin of the giant corpse flower, a plant notorious for its terrible odor. According to a Temple University article, the konjac is “smaller, but no less stinky,” than its big cousin.

While the konjac at the Flower Show haven’t bloomed yet (though the biggest one looks like it’s threatening to), you can still smell their rancid scent if you lean in close enough.