I drove into the City of Brotherly Love last evening for my annual sojourn to the Philadelphia Flower Show. This is the trip that unofficially kicks off the gardening season for me (never mind the fact that we are due for a major snowstorm over the next few days) and the scent alone upon entering the showroom floor is enough to put me into a plant frenzy.
The theme for this year's show is Great Britain and I'll agree with the official logo of the show; it was damn "Brilliant". The centerpiece of it all is a giant replica of good ol "Big Ben" that was bloody brilliant (imagine a British accent for full effect):
Of course, it didn't take me long to take my eyes off of Ben and focus on what I really came for ... the plants/flowers. It all started with what was planted at the base of Big Ben:
I thought about jumping into the roses head first and just lounging out there for a few hours but that probably would have been frowned upon by all of the other onlookers, so I remained calm and moved on.
At last count, I took over 267 photos and it has taken some time to sort through them all. The challenge, as always, is to take the photos without any of those damn "people" in them. I have found it is a lot easier to go later in the evening when the crowds are much smaller. I have also found it helps to be 6 foot 4 inches tall, so I've got that going for me.
I don't want to put you all in sensory overload, so I will be breaking up my FlowerShow pics over the course of 2, maybe 3 days. For today, I'll share my photos of the various exhibits/displays and tomorrow, I'll focus solely on the plants. You good with that? Brilliant.
Here we go:
And before I leave you, I wanted to share with you the song montage that plays at the top of each hour on the Big Ben video screen. The highlight for me has to be the quick Adam Ant tune; he was a staple for me as I grew up watching MTV in the early 80's. Enjoy:
Until tomorrow ...
