Best of show
Boston is home to the world's oldest continuous annual flower show, a romantic relic from the Victorian era that keeps evolving just enough to survive. The skill sets of modern event planners have energized this 136th edition: Landscaping and flower arranging, usually two separate branches of the New England Spring Flower Show, have melded in a show-stopping central exhibit. Visitors can stroll through a seaside garden party with 24 tables of over-the-top fantasy flower arrangements and table treatments ($300 a yard for a tablecloth, anyone?).
The garden itself, by Paul Miskovsky of Falmouth and David Haskell of New Bedford, is quite good, conveying both serenity and festivity. Its botanical treasures include giant Geranium maderense madariense from Portugal; turquoise milkweed flowers; a prize-winning new daphne cultivar, 'Ana' ; and a black pine variety, 'Nischiki-tsusak,' judged the best plant in the show.
The rival table treatments dotted throughout the garden include edible-looking giant carnations in cupcake racks surrounding R. FitzGerald & Co.'s sandcastle and balloon centerpieces and Gregory Van Boven's alabaster seashell columns supporting a roof of white orchid sprays. Colorful silken tents lend opulent intimacy to many vignettes such as BRInc Design Ltd's iridescent orange draped table with a bonsai centerpiece and Tony Cappoli's sky - blue tenting hung with a seashell chandelier. Will tents replace gazebos this summer for al fresco dining?
Another exhibit, a faux underwater shipwreck that uses oddball desert plants (euphorbias and kalachoes ) as stand-ins for seaweed, also shows witty attention to detail. A topiary octopus with "suckers" of pearl buttons sewn on its tentacles crawls out of the sunken bow's forward hatch. The exhibitor's goal is to promote the June 22-24 Newport Flower Show at Rosecliff mansion.
Howard Garden Designs Inc. , New England Water Gardens , and Weston Nurseries combined forces to create a stand out exhibit of rare plant material such as Japanese maple (Acer palmatum dissectum 'Tamukeyama') and such whimsical design elements as a tepee, a campfire, and a cluster of stones carved with Celtic - inspired runes by Irish artist Karen Stanley . A garden shed is planted with a trendy "green roof" of low - growing sedums, sempervivums, and lamb's ear to reduce summer temperatures without air conditioning. The University of Massachusetts/Boston exhibit next door has more suggestions for combating global warming.
Other highlights include a walk-through display of perfectly forced rare rhododendrons by the Bartlett Tree Experts to mark its 100th anniversary this year, 122-year-old Wilson Farm's colorful production beds of spring peas and sunflowers, Peter R. Sadeck's exotic birds rhododendron forest , A & P Orchid s ' perfectly luscious lady slippers, including "Hybrid Golden Angel" and brown fretted "Hybrid Saiun." Earthworks of Leverett has giant flowering tobacco and the best waterfall, a horizontal slider instead of the usual vertical drop.-- CAROL STOCKER
The Flower Show runs through Sunday at the Bayside Expo Center, Exit 15 off the Southeast Expressway. Adult tickets are $20. Visit masshort.org or call 617-933-4980 for times, speakers, and other information.
