The Philadelphia Flower Show’s “Flower Power” theme had me at my first step inside. It wasn’t the flowers. It was Janis Joplin belting out, “Take another little piece of my heart now, baby!” Janis made up for the unfortunate opening display that skipped the cheerful 1960s palette for a dingy, goldish hue.
Not pausing at the opening arrangement, crowds clogged the exuberant nearby peace symbol made of yellow and red flowers. Some selfie-snappers were young enough to have had grandparents at Woodstock. That display ought to have been at the entrance.
While the “Aquarius/Let The Sun Shine” wafted above us, most of the other displays didn’t seem particularly ’60s-ish. Visitors made up for it by creating flowered head wreaths.
The show’s international competition of floral designers featured live contests in which, for example, each exhibitor was given a box of plant material and an hour and a half to create an arrangement.
Many competitors created brilliant arrangements by bundling plant stems, cutting them even at the bottom, and balancing them on shallow trays of water. The flowers above the stems seemed miraculously poised in a variety of improbable shapes. Italy’s Vincent Antonuccio’s was a gorgeous palette of orange-reds and light lavenders, the blossoms forming a 3-foot-wide wash of color.
I will not attempt their wily tricks at home but was glad to glimpse how real pros create flower power.