The Philadelphia Flower Show, 2012

The Philadelphia Flower Show.  Where do I begin?
The annual Philadelphia Flower Show usually falls on the week of my birthday, it is 2-3 hours away from our house, and it is insanely over priced for a flower show.  As a result we have never gone.  However, the stars aligned for Jim this year and we were all able to attend the big event.

(As I was taking this picture, a lady rushed up to me and said "You do NOT want your picture in front of that sign! Don't you know what it means??"  I assured her that I did know what it meant and that is what made the picture, and consequently me, so funny.)

You may or may not know that Jim is a pretty serious gardener.  He thinks about his garden year round, composts year round, and spends hours and hours in his garden.  I can't tell you how much I admire his desire to garden and how much I enjoy reaping the benefits.  It is quite similar to the little red hen, I am never willing to help with any of the steps of gardening other than eating the final product and nagging about the hose being left out.  Jim has a lot more sympathy and compassion than the red hen and lets me eat his produce.


I digress...


This year Jim was going to attend the show with his mother, who is also an avid gardener, and they were going to have a lovely mother/son outing.  However, the morning of the show I was feeling spontaneous and decided that I would come along, with the children, and we would all have a wonderful day looking at flowers together.

(Lilly was as overwhelmed as I was by the insanity of it all.  Jim's mom is on the left, not the angry lady to the right who was bitter that I was blocking the bonsai tree that was 30 years old.)


Here is a quote that aptly described the flower show from the Huffington Post:  "Remember that intense episode during Downton Abbey Season One when Lady Violet and Cousin Isobel faced off at the local flower show? Well this is like that on steroids...The nation's largest and oldest indoor flower show (dating from 1829) is a huge extravaganza for the horticulture community, annually attracting over 250,000 visitors to the Pennsylvania Convention Center. It's like the Westminster Dog Show meets the Tournament of Roses Parade crossed with a huge trade show and shopping spree for flower people."

Each year there is a theme, and this year the theme was Hawaii.

(This was to simulate walking under water with hundreds of real orchids above you.)

(Main exhibit, this is about as close as I got.)

The flower show sells tickets as general admission, so they don't control the number of people that come in a day.  To say the place was crowded would be an understatement.  We were never actually able to get close enough to the main Hawaiian exhibits. 

I could never actually get a picture without a stranger stepping into the show.  It was so crowded that when Jack was having a fit he leaned out of his stroller and slapped a man on the leg out of anger.  When Jack is angry he looks for things to hit, that man was the closest thing to hit.

I took the children down a long hall away from the crowds, and we spent a few hours there throughout the day to get a break from the flower crowds. Lilly and I decided to call the small space our apartment, and when asked what was her favorite part of the day, she responded "our apartment."  See, I am a fun mom!

Poor Jim. He is a dedicated gardener and I have a feeling I put quite the damper on his day.  I did not complain out loud...too much, and the children and I kept happy faces despite the crowds.  I promise to let Jim go alone next year, and have a fantastic day all to himself.