Spring is at our pad: Bring your winter-weary soul to the Philadelphia International Flower Show

FOR THOSE unable to explore the depths of Cameroon, New Guinea, Brazil or Argentina this winter, the 2010 Philadelphia International Flower Show offers a solution. When the Philadelphia Horticulture Society opens the show on Sunday, visitors will enter a world of floral and cultural treasures gathered on plant explorations to these and other distant lands.

This year's theme, "Passport to the World," celebrates the adventures and explorations - both modern and historic - that have brought plants of all types to the United States.

Plants gathered from every continent except Antarctica will be displayed in the Explorer's Garden. Upon entering the convention center, visitors will be greeted by a 28-foot-high hot-air balloon covered in more than 79,000 flowers meant to capture the essence of exploration.

"People are going to feel that spirit of adventure," Alan Jaffe, PHS spokesman said.

Surrounding the featured exhibit are gardens that allow visitors to make their own explorations to the six corners of the world, Jaffe said.

A hundred thousand flowers surround a Dutch canal. Plants, performers and wildlife offer a glimpse of South African Zulu culture. A waterfall cuts through a garden, complete with an 18-foot-high canopy that replicates Brazil's Amazon jungle.

A Singapore-inspired garden shares a tribute to orchids, and Stoney Bank Nurseries brings New Zealand's exotic plants and rich indigenous culture to the show.

The Wilkes Expedition, the first plant exploration backed by the U.S. government, provides a history lesson.

In 1838, the U.S. government gave U.S. Navy Lt. Charles Wilkes six ships and funding to explore the Pacific and South American coasts and South Pacific islands.

Over four years, Wilkes and his team gathered more than 50,000 plant and wildlife specimens.

"We really credit [Wilkes] with our rebirth," said Holly Shimizu, director of the United States Botanic Garden, in Washington, D.C.

In 1820, the Botanic Garden had been forced to close. After Wilkes returned from his expedition, the Great Hall of the U.S. Patent Office housed his specimens, but it became clear that a greenhouse was needed.

Wilkes got Congress to appropriate $5,000, which in 1850 was enough to resurrect the Botanic Garden, said Shimizu.

A five-foot vessel fern - a direct descendant of one that Wilkes and his team collected - has been sent to Philadelphia from the Botanic Garden.

Displays of today's popular poinsettia, peony and chrysanthemum, all species brought to the U.S. by explorers and seen for the first time at the first Philadelphia Flower Show in 1829, reinforces the historic context of pioneer plant exploration and its continued importance.

Species collected on modern explorations are a significant part of the show and are made possible by collaborations between Longwood Gardens, the University of Pennsylvania's Morris Arboretum, the U.S. Botanic Garden and other horticulture teams from around the globe.

Longwood Gardens is contributing what director Paul Redman calls its exhibit's "crown jewel" - Victoria water lilies, whose pads are capable of growing to four or five feet in diameter.

These particular water lilies are a hybridization between a water-lily species gathered in the Amazon and another from Argentina that Longwood Gardens engineered in its Kennett Square facilities.

Clever engineering did not end there. Getting the lilies to the show proved to be an additional challenge. Like many contributors, Longwood Gardens is growing the plant out of season and must transport them in still water.

Modern horticultural explorers aren't daunted by a challenge. Redman describes these men and women as "Indiana Jones types" who often discover plants by chance sighting, in field exploration or in foreign retail markets.

And the explorers still resort to "hoofin' it," said flower show designer Sam Lemheney, who joked that they might encounter mosquitoes the size of bats.

The focus of plant exploration has shifted over time.

"Now, more than ever," Redman said, "it's about conservation." He said that Longwood Gardens is committed to documenting plants before they go extinct.

Finding plants that are resistant to environmental change is another goal, according to Morris Arboretum's Aiello. Lemheney said that finding plants with medicinal qualities is another fertile area of exploration.

Such discoveries transcend cultural boundaries.Aiello said that cultural exchange is one of the most important aspects of modern explorations.

Guests at this year's flower show will be able to experience a multicultural array of entertainment, from the Brazilian band Minas to Bollywood-style dancing, and international food.

Lemheney hopes that people will be eager to explore.

"You never know what you're going to discover," he said.

Philadelphia International Flower Show, Pennsylvania Convention Center, 12th and Arch streets, Sunday-March 7, 10 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Monday-Friday; 8 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Saturday, 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday $23, students $18, children 2-16, $13, 215-988-8899.