Flower Show enchants young and old with movie theme and princesses

The Philadelphia Flower Show opened to the public Saturday, and while it wasn't exactly Disney World at the Convention Center, it was darned close in some corners.

The 2015 theme - "Celebrate the Movies," with an emphasis on Disney - appears to be speaking to families in a way that past shows have not. Many more children were in evidence throughout the day, especially little girls with endless love for princesses.

"This is really cool," said Kate Abbey, 11, of East Lyme, Conn., who was scheduled to compete in a gymnastics meet elsewhere in the Convention Center on Sunday but came to Philadelphia a day early, with her mother, Karen, to take in the Flower Show.

The two were in line for the American Institute of Floral Designers exhibit, which used cut flowers, stones, and fabric to interpret the 11 official Disney princesses. It won best in show on the floral side.

Kate immediately identified the tall display with tiny yellow orchids and carnations and long yellow ribbons hanging down as Rapunzel, one of those princesses.

(The others are Snow White, Aurora, Ariel, Jasmine, Merida, Pocahontas, Mulan, Cinderella, Belle, and Tiana - Anna and Elsa are expected to join the list - and Kate knew nine off the top of her head.)

The Flower Show, a pre-spring tradition in Philadelphia since 1829, is produced by the nonprofit Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. It runs through next Sunday.

For the last five years, attendance has averaged 244,000 and the show usually raises about $1 million to fund PHS beautification and other programs.

The society chose the movie theme in part to broaden the show's appeal and to infuse its historic audience of horticulturists and home gardeners, mostly middle-aged and suburban, with a younger, more urban demographic. They might not be into plants just yet, so the thinking goes, but get them in the door, offer some features that appeal - such as this year's pop-up beer garden, which was filling up early - and see what happens.

Saturday's weather was perfect, the crowd dense, and while attendance numbers weren't available, it appeared that the second Flower Show in as many years to have a different kind of theme was headed for a successful launch.

PHS's recent themes often were based on geography - Ireland, New Orleans, Italy, Paris, Hawaii, Britain. In 2014, ARTiculture paired landscape and floral designers with museums, galleries, and sculpture gardens, and asked them to interpret artworks or artists' genres.

This year, designers were instructed to interpret movies without using actual props or replicating characters or scenes. In other words: Show, don't tell.

To illustrate Disney's Finding Nemo, for example, J. Downend Landscaping of Crum Lynne, Delaware County, suspended a small boat from the Convention Center ceiling to suggest a water line, shaped wire-frames into sea creatures, and fashioned an "underwater landscape" with succulents, fishtail palms, and agave plants that resemble octopus tentacles.

"There's no water at all," said Downend operations manager Tom Morris, who added that Nemo was chosen "because it reminded our company's owner of when all of his kids were growing up."

By midafternoon Saturday, the lines were still long at the princess exhibit and others, such as the Frozen display by Michael Bruce of Pennsauken, which evokes Princess Elsa's ice castle and the eventual thaw into spring.

A scrum of adults and children stood in front, while Tom Caulfield, of Holmesburg, waited in line with Cooper, his 2-year-old daughter. Five-year-old Summer was up ahead with her mother and grandmother.

"My wife and I usually come to the Flower Show, but we brought the young ones today because of Disney," said Caulfield, who's lost count of how many times he's seen Frozen with his girls.

Both know all the princesses, although Cooper calls Rapunzel "Punzy" and Snow White "White" and Cinderella "Rellie."

And if you think this dad would rather be outside chopping wood than inside watching princess movies with his daughters, maybe it's time to update your program.

"I love those movies just as much as they do," Caulfield said.

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