Flower Show book: Fragrant Memories

Who remembers those sweetly scented hyacinths at the bottom of the escalator?

That would be the escalator at the old Civic Center in West Philadelphia, home of the Philadelphia Flower Show from 1966 to 1996. About halfway into the 12-second ride down to the show, there it was - the unmistakable smell of spring, a few weeks early.

Those who miss it still will be pleased to know that in 2014, hyacinths will once again grace the entrance to the show. And that, in recognition of the marketing potential of this powerful memory, you are the intended audience for a new book called Images of America: The Philadelphia Flower Show, a 128-page history of a tradition that has continued more or less - time out for world wars - since 1829.

"Our audience is Flower Show devotees, people who have good feelings about the show, which has been part of their history," explains the book's editor, Janet Evans, senior manager of the McLean Library at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, the show's producer since 1968.

Images of America (Arcadia Publishing, $21.99) can be purchased at the PHS library, 100 N. 10th St.; at PHS's Meadowbrook Farm in Abington; online at ShopPHS.org; and at the PHS shop at the show, to be held Saturday through March 9 at the Convention Center, 12th and Arch Streets. It will have an initial printing of 1,500.

And it was a lot of work.

Although Evans drew heavily from old show programs, trade journals, newspaper clippings, and scrapbooks, much of the story is told in 200 black- and-white images culled from thousands of photographs and 35mm slides and negatives.

"Not great photography," Evans concedes, "more a record of who and what was there."

And "who" was there? The answer, for decades, was anyone who was anyone in horticulture and high society, two worlds that overlapped and flourished in Philadelphia.

Providing the early "what" was an impressive band of exhibitors that included the commercial growers and florists for which the city was famous: the Pennock brothers, Henry Dreer, Thomas Meehan, Robert Buist, and Hugh Graham, who wowed the crowds with cultivated dahlias and roses and exotic houseplants like dracaenas and marantas.

Private growers and head gardeners from the region's grand estates fiercely competed with one another, as did legions of garden club ladies. And while recent showgoers may assume it has been held at the Convention Center for decades, it has actually had many homes since its 1829 inaugural at the Masonic Hall on Chestnut Street.

There, the poinsettia was introduced from Mexico. In subsequent years, the list extended to Chinese peonies, Japanese chrysanthemums, Indian rubber trees, Middle Eastern coffee trees, and West Indian sugar cane.

From the Masonic Hall, the show moved to a series of three Horticultual Halls built by PHS; two burned down and one was sold to raise money and demolished.

Then came the Academy of Music, where a temporary wooden floor was placed atop the seats; the old Commercial Museum in West Philadelphia; the Armory at 23d and Ranstead Streets; the unfinished basement of the new Philadelphia Civic Center, and finally, the Civic Center itself.

Once the show moved to the Convention Center, both space and attendance increased. "This was a new facility with more stuff to see. It was downtown," Evans says. "People could make a day of it."

And they always have, even during the Great Depression. In 1931, for example, attendance topped 115,000, slightly more than half of 2013's draw.

Traditionally, Pennsylvania governors and their wives have put in an appearance, a tradition that continues with Gov. Corbett's wife, Susan, who is a serious gardener. First lady Barbara Bush, with two Secret Service minders in tow, dropped by in 1992.

Royalty came, too. Grace Kelly, the Philadelphia-born movie star transplanted to Monaco as a princess, was a fan of pressed flowers, and a show judge in 1976. Her daughter Princess Caroline came in 1990.

But the exhibitors and competitors were stars, too, and Evans gives them their due: Joseph Widener and his acacias, Louis Burk and his orchids, and modern standouts such as the late Ernesta Ballard, who rescued the Flower Show in the 1960s, when attendance hit a shockingly low 66,000, and Jane Pepper, who ran PHS from 1981 to 2010, years that saw an upswing in popularity.

Sylvia Lin, "the begonia queen," is in there, along with Dorrance Hamilton, philanthropist-owner of some extraordinarily fecund greenhouses, George Off and sons' Waldor Orchids in Linwood, N.J., and Jack Blandy's Stoney Bank Nurseries in Glen Mills.

Today, nobody's dropping thousands of flowers from an airplane over Center City to promote the show, as they did in 1922, but the marketing campaign is fierce. And the show's entertainment has certainly evolved.

Orchestra music and Main Line debs serving tea have given way to jumpy videos and jazz bands. On the program this year: an aerial dance troupe - and more history to be made.

The 2014 Philadelphia Flower Show opens to the public on Saturday and runs through March 9 at the Convention Center, 12th and Arch Streets. Information: theflowershow.com

Saturday: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Sunday: 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Monday to Friday: 10 a.m.

to 9 p.m.

March 8: 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.

March 9: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Pennsylvania Horticultural Society members preview for household and leadership levels only: Friday noon to 3:30 p.m. and Saturday, 8 a.m. to 11 a.m.

General admission: $27

Student (17 to 24): $20

Child (2 to 16): $15

Under 2: Free

Service fees may apply.

Adult: $32

Student: $22

Child: $17

The Flower Show Box Office, including Will Call, is at the Convention Center's west main entrance, 12th and Arch Streets. It opens one hour before the show opens and closes one hour before the show closes. Day-of-show tickets may be purchased at the box office.

The Convention Center is a handicap-accessible building. Elevators and wheelchairs are available to rent on a first-come, first-served basis.

 EndText

215-854-5720

facebook.com/InqGardening

@inkygardener

www.inquirer.com/kisstheearth