'Nona Begonia,' to the front lines

My mother's sturdy white walking shoes land heavily with a

thlump, thlump, thlump

on her hardwood floors downstairs.

From my bed in her guest room, I know this can mean only one thing.

It's 4 a.m. Time to get moving.

I know without looking downstairs that my mother, Sylvia Lin, 79, already has her white hair brushed and pulled into her signature bun. I know without asking that she's been up for at least a half hour and didn't go to bed until well after midnight. I know without even saying "Good morning" that she's revving in high gear, ready to pack up three carloads of succulents, cacti and begonias for the drive from Ambler to Center City.

It has been this way on this weekend of the Philadelphia Flower Show every year for the last 30 or so. I am part of a small tag team that gets "Nona Begonia" to the show.

Her friends Nancy and Michael Walsh do the heavy lifting on the Friday before opening day (this year, that's today), stringing wires in Michael's work van to transport big baskets of begonias. I follow up the day after with the dawn patrol of my brother-in-law Andy Cox and almost-a-brother Wayne Baumgaertel.

In a 24-hour sprint, we will primp and pack close to a hundred entries – from a monster euphorbia with arms that could hold you to a coddled begonia that would rather be clinging to a cliff in Madagascar.

This is the part of the Flower Show that visitors don't get to see - the challenge of transporting plants from shelves in the greenhouse to displays at the Convention Center.

Commercial growers can haul everything in their work trucks. But for individuals like my mother, every pot or basket has to be wedged into a shoebox, clementine crate, milk crate or cardboard box to get to the show.

My mother has entered so many plants over the decades that she's become part of Flower Show lore. She's the woman who, as her six kids left home, filled their rooms with plant lights and begonias in glass bubbles. She's the grower whose succulents and cacti vacation in Avalon. She's the Energizer Bunny who keeps on going year after year after year.

I've been there from the start. I was in high school the first time she entered the show, in 1975. We had two entries and got two ribbons: a third and an honorable mention. Last year, she won 236 ribbons, including 42 blues. In the last 30 years, she's won the sweepstakes award for the most points in the individual horticultural classes 10 times and was runner-up 12.

In all this time, I've missed helping her at only three shows - and only because I was living in China. From time to time, volunteers chip in. My sisters, nieces and nephews from far-flung cities are enlisted. Last year, a childhood family friend took off from her job as an anesthesiologist to fly up from Georgia to help.

But on opening day, it's always me, Andy and Wayne. We have a tried-and-true system that we execute with military precision. And guess who's Gen. Patton?

At the show, I enjoy watching my mother in her habitat. For most of her adult life, she was consumed and defined by her roles as a wife and mother. But at the Flower Show, she has created a world of her own making. When she entered those first two baskets, she found herself.

And yet, even with all her achievements, she's very modest, to the point of almost apologizing for the fact that her horticultural knowledge is more intuitive than intellectual.

She'll tell people that it's the nurturing nurse in her that makes her want to grow so many plants.

But I know the truth. It's the competitor in her. Even after all these years, she still thrills at seeing a judge pin a blue ribbon on a specimen.

With each passing show, I know it's getting physically harder for her to gear up for the Flower Show. The stress alone is exhausting.

Every year, my 81-year-old father will ask her, "I thought you were going to cut back this year?"

And every year, she'll ignore him.

Which for me means that on opening morning of the show, I'll hear footsteps downstairs and know it's time to get going.

The Philadelphia Flower Show continues daily through next Sunday at the Convention Center, 12th & Arch Streets.

Hours: Today and next Sunday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.; Saturday, 8 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.

Inquirer gardening writer Virginia A. Smith is blogging from the show:

» READ MORE: http://go.philly.com/kisstheearth

Additional coverage: http://go.philly.com/weekend and http:/go.philly.com/home&design

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