All posts by DaveOC

A Beautiful Disturbance Comes to Philadelphia

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A wildflower-filled lot beckons visitors at this year’s Philadelphia Flower Show. The unconventional garden, filled with native plants and long-time residents like Queen Ann’s lace, reflects the design concepts of Kelly D. Norris of Des Moines, IA. He follows an ecological planting approach to design for his residential clients in Des Moines and the upper mid-West. This was the firm’s first display at the Flower Show. I spoke with Kelly Norris at the show.

Laura O’Callaghan: Is your garden all natives?

Kelly Norris: It is not, the concept about the exhibit is to create the artifice of urban and abandoned spaces. And, in some ways, to explore and celebrate the conflict of plant origins that occur in a place where disturbance is the principal…

There are species of plants that would be native here in Philadelphia and the Eastern seaboard but also examples of plants that aren’t.

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Pleasing the Pollinators in Your Garden

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Snowy cold winter days offer gardeners the perfect time to consider additions to their yards from the comfort of an easy chair and a warm fire.

Whether you plan to add tasty highbush blueberries, elegant dwarf crested irises, cheery coreopsis, or something else, you might want to consider the preferences of pollinators.

Native bees prefer purple, yellow, blue, violet, and white flowers. The most important of all pollinators, about 400 species of bees call Maryland home.

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TIME TO PREPARE FOR, PHILLY’S 2024 FLOWER SHOW 

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 My second date with my husband was a magical trip to the Philadelphia Flower Show (PFS). Combined with the extraordinary displays of flowers and other plants, it has held a special place in my heart ever sense.

When we created our website, In the Garden with Laura, in 2014, we began covering the show. It has been a joyous way to celebrate spring and nature; I look forward to it every year.

This year, the show runs from March 2 to 10, 2024 at the Philadelphia Convention Center, 1101 Arch St., Philadelphia, PA. It opens daily from 10 am to 8 pm, except on March 10 it closes at 6 pm.

The show, whose theme is “United by Flowers,” “illustrates the beauty and power of flowers to transform, inspire, delight, and connect us to one another,” according to event organizers.

To avoid the largest crowds, visit early or late in the day. If you have an option, attend one of the first days of the show while everything is the most pristine.

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