The PHS Philadelphia Flower Show is both the nation’s largest and the world’s longest-running horticultural event, featuring stunning displays by premier floral and landscape designers from around the globe. Started in 1829 by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, the Show introduces diverse and sustainable plant varieties and garden and design concepts. In addition to acres of garden displays, the Flower Show hosts competitions in horticulture and artistic floral arranging, gardening presentations and demonstrations, and special events.
I captured interviews with two Slow Flowers members who designed show displays and also filmed the fabulous exhibit created by our friends at Black Girl Florists.
Up first, a tour and conversation with Kat Claar of From Blossoms, an evolving art project by Pennsylvania-based artist Kat Claar. Her work includes floral design, botanical sculptural works of plants and paper, storytelling, and painted wood cutouts. From Blossoms has received Gold, Silver and Bronze medals for previous floral design work at the Philadelphia Flower Show, and recently had work displayed at the Philadelphia International Airport and Parkway Central Library. Kat recently returned to her cut-flower-growing roots. For her exhibit, “Flowers are for Everyone,” Kat shares a gallery of portraits taken in Philadelphia and across the state of Pennsylvania, which shows the breadth of possibilities for a garden. “Gardening connects our lives in so many ways. Gardening can be passed down generationally, be a space for communal connection and personal sanctuary, and contains the impermanent blossom: providing fruit, beauty, and symbols for celebration and mourning.”
Next, let’s visit the Beauty Shop, an inspiring exhibit from Black Girl Florists. Back for the 2nd year at the Philadelphia Flower Show, this display is titled “Cultivating Communal Sanctuaries: Highlighting the connection between Black Salons and Flower Shops as Nurturing Spaces.” Here’s a description from Black Girl Florists: We tell the best stories, get a chance to relax, and literally let our hair down at the beauty shop. As Black florists we feel connected in community, and feel like we belong when we share our talent of floral design with one another. In everything from different hairstyles to different flower arrangements and from different backgrounds in floral to living the same culture, we bring the flavor of our expertise to both fields. One of our iconic meeting places is in a beauty shop. This exhibit is an ode to Black beauty shops and how the experiences within the space mirrors that of Black florists in community with one another. We bring our passion for flowers to a longstanding place of safety, openness and creativity. The necessity of the ingenity to bring out the beauty of each area channels passion and intention with each design. We want visitors to experience the joy of flowers as represented in an atmosphere of creative expression–the beauty shop. We want the show attendees to understand that our exhibit is our illustration of bringing the beauty of flowers into a space where we feel seen, heard, and connected. We bloom in both our flower studios and the beauty shop. Both our time in the salon studio with our sisters and time in the floral studio with other Black florists, we feel a sense of unity. What an inspiration and I especially love the attention to detail with accessories and décor!
Finally, let’s visit “America in Bloom,” the exhibit designed and installed by Jennifer Reed of Jennifer Designs, who we recently hosted on the Slow Flowers Podcast. The garden received the 2024 PHS Philadelphia Flower Show Special Achievement Award of the Garden Club Federation of Pennsylvania for unusual excellence, Educational and a floral exhibit Silver Trophy, the Society of American Florists’ Flower Show Award for artistic presentation of flowers, and the PHS Gardening for the Greater Good Award for the exhibit that best exemplifies PHS’s mission for Floral displays. Jennifer Designs is a wedding and event company from New Jersey and longtime Slow Flowers member. Jennifer Reed has more than 20 years of experience and uses her love of all mediums of art and translates them into her florals. She draws inspiration from experience in the arts, creating piece that emphasize sculptural composition in design. She strongly believes that Floral Design and all forms of art should make you “feel” and immerse you in the design – and most importantly, be fun! She calls American in Bloom “a botanical road trip of a lifetime,” as it celebrates flowers blooming across the U.S. She continues: “There’s nothing better than hitting the open road and experiencing the beauty of our nation’s public gardens, arboreta, and natural landscapes along the way!”
