Flower show

So Philadelphia has this totally ridiculous flower show every year (by ridiculous i mean huge).  Before this year, i had never gone.  Ericka convinced me and thus educated me.  They have several exhibits like this one:  the "window box" competition.  This was my favorite, and next to it was a "city porch" style competition that included a Caribbean porch full of beautiful tropical plants and the porch dressed like a tikibar.  There were also competitions between various types of plants (succulents, orchids smaller than..., orchid any type, orchid hybrids, rooftop greenery, topiary, etc.).  Really, i wanted to hate it a lot.  It's pure excess in a time when we, as a global community, could use a much different boost than a show of opulence-especially in Philadelphia.  Seeing the good in the use in the convention center, and the huge draw of the suburban tourists, I still went.  I should do everything at least once.  And have you seen some of these plants?
These guys are so awesome.  Heather, a friend from school gave us one of these guys as a present one year on.  It managed to bloom a second time (which for our household is so far unheard of for orchids).  

She got it for us because it was affectionately called the "darth vader" orchid.  Um.   It looks nothing like Anakin Skywalker.  Then there were a bunch of other lovelies.  My very favorite orchid was the crazy lioness butterfly looking one.

Another, in the "tiny orchid" category (which is to say you could have bought your orchid the night before the competition, or didn't need to have grown it that long that it was enormous and full of flowers) used bark as the root base for the plant and then hung that bark from an upside-down flower pot. 
It was such an imaginative way to handle a plant that lives off trees and put it into a horticultural exhibit with a bunch of pretentious snoots, that i'm glad that it got at least an "honorable mention" (which i notice happens to rebels in competitions on the east coast).
This thing suits my aesthetic sense for sure.  I don't know why, but white sage style outcroppings, the contrast of the bark, the iddy biddy, mountain-top, edelweiss-like flower in the midst of all the roughage is just a beautiful sight.  Among the pretense of the other flamboyant orchids, its quiet statement seems more beautiful. 


There's also a bonzai exhibit which was surprisingly underrepresented, but i suppose with a minimum of 12 years needed to groom even a tiny tree to be the shape you want, that makes sense.  This is one of the younger of the bunch.  One was 60 years old.  Others 40 and younger.  It is hard for me to imagine the endurance and patience involved in grooming a bonzai.  There is no instant gratification, and being able to see the long view in concept and then prune accordingly when it comes to plants seems daunting.  The results, however, are something i really love to see.  The trees came from India, China and Japan.  Interesting mixes and breeds, some with pine tree like leaves, other like this, and others still with barely any leaves and fat chunky trunks and branches.



Lastly, there was the "shape your plant/s into something interesting."  There were quite a few interesting pieces like planes and one that used my very favorite lilies in a vase and had them cascade down like a lopsided chandelier.  It won top prize and it was probably justified for a successful modern interpretation of the classical flower layout without too much fluff and pomp.  But one should note the amazing dragon duo.  I believe they were made from seeds and bark instead of flowers and grass.  That alone makes them rebellious, but wooooo!