Soften winter's blast with a wander through the Philadelphia Flower Show

ARE YOU ONE of those people who bore this week's cold blast with unusual cheer, chirping to frostbitten friends and family: That's OK, the flower show starts Saturday, tra-la, tra-la, tra-la?

Allow us to sprinkle more fairy dust along your garden path with a preview of what's new and noteworthy at the 2014 Philadelphia Flower Show, opening tomorrow through March 9:

* "ARTiculture." This year's show theme has horitculturalists pairing up on exhibits with cultural institutions like the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Arts - and further afield, the J. Paul Getty Museum, Guggenheim Museum, Grounds for Sculpture and Storm King Art Center, among others.

Wear comfy shoes: The plant people and their artsy friends collaborated on 14 exhibits.

* Royalty, once removed. A painting from the private collection of Prince Albert of Monaco is the inspiration for visiting French garden designer James Basson, based in Provence. Look for golden-hued meadow grasses to predominant ("amber waves of grain," in American).

* Bandaloop. This "vertical" dance troupe out of California, known for performing on the sides of skyscrapers and cliffs, here climbs and hangs from custom-designed rigging in the show's marquee Entrance Garden, designed as a floral interpretation of hometown sculptor Alexander Calder's mobiles.

Shows are spaced roughly an hour apart, with the first at noon most days and the last at 6:45 p.m. (final show, 5:30 p.m. March 9).

* Rachael Ray. She's this year's celebrity headliner because, um, the vegetables she cooks with grow in gardens? Ray appears at 1:30 p.m. March 7 in a question-and-answer session with 6ABC meteorologist Melissa Magee.

* Local chefs. Organic Gardening's Garden to Table Studio, with live cooking demos by veggie luminaries like Rich Landau of Vedge, moves onto the main show floor for 2014. The half-hour demos are spaced two hours apart, starting at 11:30 a.m. and ending with a 7:30 p.m. demo most days. Landau is at the stove 11:30 a.m. March 8.

* Butterflies. Are free-ish, fluttering around in a walk-through display (Room 202, off the main show floor, $3 extra to enter) that showcases 10 common and 10 exotic species. Exhibitor Sky River Butterflies, out of California, brings the exotics here for their first U.S. appearance.

* Theme nights. Sunday there's an LGBT party, with cocktails and hors d'oeuvres and a VIP suite in which to enjoy them (4-6 p.m., $50). Midweek brings Wedding Wednesday, aimed at brides-to-be (6-8 p.m., $50) with goodies from wedding-industry vendors.

Thursday's themed event is a pamper-fest called Girls' Night Out (5:30-8 p.m., $50), with nibbles, one complimentary cocktail and a cash bar after that.

The Flower Show goes on as usual for the general public during all three events.

* Free booze. Once again, the PLCB brings in its stingy pourers and teensy plastic cups to help put the buzz in gardening - so who needs bees?

As in previous years, the wines and liquors at the sampling tables (Grand Hall of the Pennsylvania Convention Center, 2-7 p.m. most days, 1-4 p.m. both Sundays) will also be sold to go, in full-size bottles.

- Becky Batcha