It's not easy being a flower show. Everybody has two cents' worth of opinions, which they freely share. Some folks are a snap to please. Some are very picky. I'm sure you have at least 20 cents' worth of thoughts on this subject. I'll offer up some of mine here.

This is a wonderful show. I enjoyed it very much. It has broad appeal, which is the goal. It's fun for first-timers and the true-blue horticultural crowd. Some of the latter complained to me that the show includes too much show biz, what with the musical entertainment and Danny DeVito's appearance tomorrow; they think it's strayed too far from its roots. But guess what. There's plenty here for everyone, and I say that as someone who's been here for six whole days. I've talked to a lot of people at the show, in the cafeteria, waiting in line, waiting for a cab .... and many have told me they don't know much about gardening but now want to try or they just like seeing all the pretty stuff. There's nothing wrong with that. I've also talked to some very sophisticated gardeners who were excited about the competitive classes or some display. The show has to appeal to both constituencies to thrive. This it does very well.

I liked some of the edgier exhibits this year, several by floral designers rather than the big landscape firms or nurseries. I do enjoy the traditional treatments but this year I seemed to gravitate to the more unusual or surprising ones. From what I saw, I wasn't the only one seeking out something different. It was interesting to talk to some of the young designers, who said flower show folks encouraged them to be creative. That's good.

I liked the growing presence of green exhibits and information sources - green roofs, living walls, dry gardens, composting, native plants, rain gardens, bee-keeping, vermiculture (worm composting), herb gardening. I picked up several story ideas and things to do in my own garden, and it's a sign of the times that this component of the show is so well attended.

The show food was better. The horticultural society's "Flower Show Shoppe" is wonderful and always jammed and I continued my tradition of buying a botanically-themed necklace every year. The marketplace shopping, too, is always a high point. Saw a little more junky stuff and things unrelated to gardening this year than I remember from past years, but there was the same array of good-quality items for the garden, too, along with plenty of plants, cut flowers and those traditional pussy willows that symbolize spring for so many.

I attended several excellent lectures and culinary demonstrations. The best, for me, were the most practical. But as I write that, I realize that my number one favorite talk of the show was the last I attended, this afternoon - Stephen Scanniello, the rose expert, talking about his new book about how roses got their names. Stephen is someone I've written about already. I've visited his extraordinary garden in south Jersey and I'll be talking to him again soon for a story on rescuing antique roses, some from old cemeteries, and you know Philadelphia has a ton of these.

One thing in the gardening world always leads to another, and for me, as a gardener and a writer, the flower show is the one thing every year I can count on to lead to other things. Ciao.