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Philadelphia—Ooh
lovely!
—by Toby Jarvis
(From Newsletter No. 40, Spring
2001)
We joined a tour party for a
trip to the USA primarily to pay a visit to the Philadelphia
flower show. Also included in the tour itinerary were
visits to some of the premier gardens in the area, before
travelling on to Washington DC for a look at Americas
capital city. We landed at Philadelphia airport on a
cold afternoon with the threat of snow in the air. The
first week of March finds the area still between winter
and spring. The weather however, was kind to us throughout
the trip although it remained cold.
Philadelphia is one of the most historic cities in America
and was built to the plans outlined by William Penn.
Penn had been given Pennsylvania by King Charles II
as a settlement of a debt owed to his father. The city
grew in importance and was at the heart of the declaration
of independence and the drafting of the new Constitution.
It was the largest city in America at that time and
was effectively the Capital City prior to the move of
the government to Washington. Most of the historically
important buildings have been preserved. Alongside these
the more modern high-rise buildings have emerged, but
still relatively few in number. The highest of these
have only appeared since the late 1980’s, when
an unwritten ‘gentlemen’s agreement’
not to build anything higher than the statue of William
Penn on the top of the City Hall, was finally broken.
The flower show hosted by the Pennsylvania Horticultural
Society (PHS) is held in the Pennsylvania Convention
Center. The show is billed as the largest indoor flower
show in the world and covers an entire floor of the
Convention Center, which is itself located in the city
centre. We arrived with eager anticipation of an enormous
floral feast. I suppose that our expectations were too
high and there was a slight feeling of disappointment
that in reality by British standards, the show is fairly
small. Our largest shows have the benefit of large outside
displays, but at least here it was refreshing to be
able to get a pass out for lunch at a place of your
own choosing. However, with approximately two-thirds
devoted to floral displays and the rest to sales stalls,
there was plenty to see. The show was very popular and
there was the familiar crush as everybody crowded around
the exhibits. With the show open from 10:00am to 9:30pm
we chose to stay all day and find the less popular attractions
and see the main displays when the crowds had eased.
I thought that the overall floral display area would
be improved by the provision of more overhead lighting.
Apart from that everything was done to a high standard.
The theme of the show was ‘Great gardeners of the
world’. About 30 major exhibits were on show ranging
from a very English garden, through woodland gardens
with oriental influences to an Australian beach party.
One interesting garden featured plants collected and
introduced by the great plant hunter Ernest Wilson.
One end it was dominated by a large oriental style pagoda
to leave you in no doubt as to the main source of plants
on the exhibit.
In general the displays were more relaxed than we are
use to seeing and reality takes precedence over perfection
and artifice. All displays appeared to get a Best Achievement
award for something or other and there were plenty of
trophies given out to all and sundry. For example the
PHS awards for the Best in Show had seven separate categories.
One display had plenty of it’s own lighting which
changed periodically to alter the atmosphere and this
drew many favourable comments. The lawn would prove
difficult to maintain though, as you would have to mow
the fibre optic strands along with the grass.
The English garden, designed by Penelope Hobhouse was,
for me one of the most effective comprising two densely
planted mixed borders either side of a gravel path.
Its inspiration was taken from her own garden in Dorset.
Large specimens of Geranium maderense in full flower
gave it a Mediterranean feel. The only other familiar
name was that of Jacques Armand with an exhibit of bulbs.
The centrepiece was a colour wheel of hyacinths showing
the wide range of different shades that are available.
Many of the displays were on a woodland theme. One of
the best, grouped saplings and other tall spindly trees,
with an under storey provided by rhododendrons and azaleas.
The ground covered by dead pine needles through which
ferns were unfurling. There was a still pool with moss
covered fallen trees across it and insectivorous plants
at the margins.
Another display garden featured the ongoing work of
Fairmount Park Commission in the reclaiming of the landscape
with the aim of replacing alien invaders with more native
species. Japanese knotweed was one of the plants to
be eradicated so they have obviously got their work
cut out.
An interesting mix of plants in one garden consisted
of a low level planting of a dwarf blue Campanula, mixed
with a feathery yellow daisy about 18 inches high together
with birch trees providing extra height.
The competitive classes provided some of the most interesting
plants in the entire show and the standard of entries
was very high. As is the norm for these events one name
kept on appearing and winning many of the classes. The
wide variety and the size of some of the plants suggested
that she must have emptied a substantial greenhouse
and possibly the garden as well in order to produce
so many prize-winning exhibits.
Plants were available to buy from the many stalls at
the show, some seemed cheaper than at home, whilst others,
such as an Ashwood’s hellebore at $40, were much
more expensive. Spray painted coloured twigs seemed
very popular, as were short bundles of bright green,
sprouting bamboo shoots which were then tiered wedding
cake fashion and placed in an oriental dish. (They’ve
reached our garden centres as well—Ed.)
Either side of our visit to the flower show we had trips
to see two nearby gardens that had been developed by
members of the du Pont family. These proved to be the
highlights of our visit. As has been the case with other
chemical companies, E. I. du Pont started in explosives
before expanding into other products. The two gardens
were completely different in mood, as it seems their
owners had been. The first, Winterthur, owned by Henry
Francis du Pont, still had snow on the ground as we
arrived. This was a very atmospheric garden, helped
by the fact that we seemed to be the only people wandering
around the grounds. The garden was designed to be naturalistic,
native plants formed the backbone of the garden but
‘exotics’ were included if they looked as
if they could have grown naturally in the surroundings.
Plants were selected to give a sequence of bloom though
the seasons. A garden tour was available by tram, which
we took to get a feel of the place and see the best
places to explore on foot. My main memory of this garden
is the yellow sheet of Adonis amurensis carpeting the
ground, wide open in the winter sun, beneath the leafless
canopy of tall trees, which would provide shade during
the hot summer. In fact by delaying too long to take
many photos of these I thought we had missed the coach
as I saw it driving off as we raced back to the car
park. Fortunately it was just moving out of the way
to allow another coach to park.
The second garden, Longwood, owned by Pierre S. du Pont,
a president of both DuPont and General Motors Companies,
was on a much grander scale. At the time of year of
our visit the highlight of the garden was the series
of conservatories, amounting to about 4 acres in area.
There are 20 separate gardens and reportedly 4,500 types
of plant cultivated within the allotted space. The main
area was the size of a football pitch but undulated
in levels, had a pool with a fountain and a winding
stream down to another pool. The area is turfed with
crescent shaped borders planted with deep blue cineraria,
white echiums and yellow genistas and other various
bedding plants. Large trachycarpus palms, weeping conifers
and small deciduous trees dominate the area. Other large
spreading tropical palms and ferns provide architectural
leaves and act as the shrubbery backdrop for the bedding
and also interrupt a complete view of this indoor garden.
Other conservatories branch off from the main area.
A sunken tropical fernery and palm house is approached
by the visitor at the canopy level and has some very
large specimen plants. Another hall with highly polished
floor and square wooden containers planted with slender
tree ferns and red tulips. Large spherical hanging baskets
are suspended from the roof. And it continues with another
huge hall with a full lawn and Dicksonia antarctica
tree ferns at the corners, the column are ivy clad and
borders planted with bedding plants and freesias. There
are also separate rooms for banana and other tropical
plants, orchids, ferns, cactus and silver leafed plants.
It was pretty cold outside and the main garden plants
were still waiting for the spring to arrive. Some bulbs
were out in the warmer sheltered spots and the evergreens
were taking their place as the main attractions.
The guidebooks for both Longwood and Winterthur show
the splendour of the gardens to come later in the year.
These gardens alone would justify a return visit. There
are other gardens such as Bartrams just outside Philadelphia,
which we visited briefly on this trip and the 31 acre
Chanticleer gardens at Wayne in Pennsylvania which also
look well worth visiting. Having been to the show I
would make any return visit later in the year. The earliest
I would think of going would be for the Cherry blossom,
which is probably mid to late April or early May.
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