LOVE ... Philadelphia International Flower Show - Part One

My first year to experience the Philadelphia Flower Show was last year, when the theme was everything Parisian, and the whole show felt like a walk through Parc Monceau. You can find pictures of that tour here: http://niagaranovice.blogspot.com/2011/03/tuesday-inspiring-spaces-at.html.
Last year we went on the final day of the show, and though it was amazing, you could tell that certain things were at the end of their peak. This year, we decided to show up on Day One - and while the show was amazing, there were so many people I could barely get good pictures of the displays. But I tried ...

This year, the theme was all Hawaii, and the main display was a beautiful thatched hut next to a 20' waterfall surrounded by thousands of orchids. Every hour on the hour they had Hawaiian dancers on stage while a voice-over narrative played about the Island legends of how the many islands of Hawaii were formed.

I told you there was a crowd. We got there at around 10:30, thinking we'd have no problem getting in and getting great pictures to share with all of our readers too far to experience for themselves. Unfortunately, others must have had the same idea. Not only was I squished against the Banana Palm display to get this picture, the camera (and I) was constantly shoved out of the way while wheelchairs, strollers, and all sorts of people pushed their way through and onward to the next display.

Please note, this was disappointing, but worth the experience of seeing this extremely well planned and orchestrated show.

The Philadelphia International Flower show is a judged show, with several different competitions in exhibit form throughout the convention center. One of the exhibits was "Store Fronts" and a few were REALLY incredible:

An exhibitor from last year was there again, this time with what I thought was a much larger exhibit that really showed off the idea of an urban garden in its finest form:

I took over 360 photos in the 3-hours we spent at the Flower Show, and it still amazes me at how few actually came out blog worthy. Something about the lighting and constant bumping just made this impossible.

While I search for more pictures to share with you tomorrow - enjoy these, and let me know if you have gone, or plan on going to the show. What did you think?