Philadelphia Flower Show 2008

After a bit of a tussle, my pix from our Friday visit to the Flower Show uploaded. The show was splendid and, as always, fully stroller and wheelchair accessible. There seemed to be more interest this year – more competition classes, more live music, and fewer chairs (sigh) than some years. Amazing to relate, blogless Kelli and her mother, Mary, spotted us in all the crush (waving hi)!

This year's theme was New Orleans jazz, which offered many inspirations to exhibitors. There were flower-adorned musical instruments, mostly prepared pianos, but also this giant bass with a spray of orchids in the generative position. There was a replica of Bourbon Street, which at times included live jazz and scantily clad masked Mardi Gras revelers on the balconies. Proof gardening is really all about sex.

   

There were many other exotic beauties, such as these black calla lilies (not to be confused with calas) and this mysterious veiled green lady. Could she be related to the famed Creole huntress of men, Madame X? I could spend all day breathing in the good planty smells trying to figure that out. That is, if it weren't for the Amorphophallus titanum on display, which was much smaller than the one at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, but 'way whiffier (sorry, no pic – the stench!).

   

We ate at the Reading Terminal Market across the street. I could spend all day there, too. My travel sock, Monkey in Claudia Hand Painted Fingering, colorway Red Wagon, posed at the Flying Monkey bakery. Their celebrated cupcakes proved to be dense and rich and thickly frosted, much superior to standard bakery fluffy cake, although too fatty for my taste.

   

The big wind- and rainstorm started while we were at the show. We carefully drove home in a tempest, which was tedious. No surprise, there were many fallen branches for me to try my new ergonomic bypass pruners on yesterday. They work well – today my hands don't hurt a bit, although my shoulders are rather stiff. Ow, I'm so not in mid-season form.

I've got lots more pix to organize, so will end for the moment with this simply ginormous Christmas cactus, easily the largest I've ever seen. Like the ginormous amaryllis in the last post, it was being shown by Mrs. Samuel M.V. Hamilton, a Campbell's Soup heiress and generous philanthropist – it's a regular attraction at the Flower Show. I've never seen her (DH thinks he did once), but her sponsorship and her many entries give so much enjoyment that she deserves a big Thank You.