After a three-year, covid-induced hiatus, the Philadelphia Flower Show is once again being held in the city’s Convention Center with a closing date of this Sunday, March 12. Readers tired of the gray, cold, dreary weather that we’ve all been enduring for too long might enjoy walking into the color and dramatically filled flower displays at the show.
Mercer County Community College is once again a prime exhibitor. I attended the show last Friday, on press preview day, and awards in their educational category had yet to be announced. Under the leadership of Professor Amy Ricco, students had grown and created swaths of foliage color throughout their display, with minimal use of flowers. MCCC has been a constant winner at the show, beating out horticultural academic powerhouses in the metropolitan area.
The Garden Club of Trenton, with members throughout the U.S. 1 area, has once again brought home ribbons in the plant competition, held within the Hamilton Horticourt. New to me this year, were educational exhibits in that area. There were displays and contact data for further information about plants such as the wide variety of begonias and African violets.
Missing from the show was the Jones Farm exhibit. The minimum security prison in Ewing had yearly brought back ribbons in the plant competition category. With the prison population in New Jersey down by over half in the past decade, prisons such as Jones Farm were closed last fall. I always thought it neat that the prisoners could beat out wealthy Philadelphia-area residents in the horticultural exhibitions.
There is a plethora of seating among all the exhibits, a great improvement over past years. And, of course, there are lots of food offerings. To me, however, if you really want to at least glimpse the international variety and home-based Philly creations of food offerings, walk next door to the Reading Terminal Market. My husband and I always stop at The Famous 4th Street Cookie Company for, on my part, their unequalled chocolate chip cookies and for my husband, their peanut butter cookies.
I have never seen the Market quiet so if you like Chinese food in a more sedate setting check out Tom’s Dim Sum, a short walk away from the Convention Center at 59 North 11th Street. Their string bean with minced pork dish is especially tasty.
If floral beauty and color, over-the-top creative displays (do check out the Design Gallery), and tempting dining appeals to you, check out phsonline.org/the-flower-show for further information. But do so before the end of this week.
— Patricia A. Taylor, Princeton
