Thanks to Hockessin’s arctic landscape, spring may seem a long way off, but one local landscaper has blooms on the brain.
Pete Irwin, owner of Irwin Landscaping on Lancaster Pike, just put the finishing touches on his entry into this year’s Philadelphia Flower Show, which opens Sunday and runs through March 7.
This will be the third year Irwin Landscaping has entered the largest indoor flower show in the world and this year, Irwin’s display will take visitors on a tour of the U.S. along historic Route 1.
The show’s theme this year is “Passport to the World” and entrants produced displays featuring different countries. Irwin chose to focus on the United States and give people a floral glimpse of old-fashioned Americana.
|
The Philadelphia Flower Show Feb. 28 through March 7 Sundays, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.; Saturday, 8 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Pennsylvania Convention Center Tickets: $22 to $28 for adults, $13 to $18 for students, $13 for kids under 17 |
“How everybody really sees America is along the highways,” he said.
His display follows Route 1 through Maine with a topiary lobster, travels to Virginia with a floral flag floating in a reflecting pool and ends its journey in Florida with an alligator gone fishing.
It takes the better part of a week to put the 24-foot by 36-foot display together, Irwin said, and the biggest challenge is transporting all the pieces to Philadelphia.
Since the flowers are blooming, they are kept in greenhouses before the show, but when they are moved, they must be transported in heated trucks, he said.
“But there’s a whole lot more than just flowers in this exhibit,” he said.
In addition to 400 petunias, the display features four cherry trees, five pines, a forest of ferns and 60 boxwood shrubs, he said.
It may be a lot of work to put the display together, he said, but winter is typically a slow time in the landscaping business.
Plus, it’s a way for him and his staff to have a little fun and show visitors the lighter side of landscaping, he said.
