Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Monday 6 March 2017
Dutch treat: Philadelphia Flower Show celebrates Holland

KRISTEN DE GROOT In addition to floral beauty,
Associated Press the show explores Dutch
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Visi- innovation in green tech-
tors arriving at the Philadel- nologies, starting with the
phia Flower Show this year nation’s windmills, one of
will feel as if they’re step- the earliest uses of natu-
ping into the endless flower ral energy.A main high-
fields of Holland. light on this theme will be
A rainbow sea of 30,000 the Ecodome, making
tulips and other blooms its first travels outside the
will stretch seemingly into Netherlands. The 70-foot-
the horizon as a canopy of wide, 30-foot-high geo-
6,000 cut and dried flowers desic dome designed by
floats overhead. Bridges landscape architect Nico
covered in Delft tiles, il- Wissing showcases sus-
luminated windmills and tainability practices in the
splashing canals will wel- Netherlands. It features
come them through the moss water storage, an
undulating gardens. insect “hotel,” living walls,
The festival runs March 11 fruit trees, climbing plants
through March 19 and is and edible plants.
billed as the largest events Other highlights are a
of its kind in the U.S. The Dutch shopping village
show attracted about with regional delights,
255,000 people last year. In this Wednesday, March 1, 2017, photo, grower Regina McKee works with tulips in a greenhouse timed floral arrangement
The Pennsylvania Horticul- growing plants for the Philadelphia Flower Show at Meadowbrook Farm, in Jenkintown, Pa. competitions in the spirit of
tural Society’s show this Associated Press “Iron Chef” and a pop-up
year, “Holland: Flowering beer garden where show-
the World,” celebrates the amount of exposure to
beauty of the Dutch land- cold temperatures to flow-
scape and the ingenuity of er, but also enough days
the country’s green tech- of warmth and the proper
nologies. amount of light, and those
But what’s hidden among amounts vary from plant to
the swaths of tulips, daf- plant.
fodils and hyacinths is the So plants are put in a 37-de-

In this Wednesday, March 1, 2017, photo, Jenny Rose Carey,
senior director of PHS Meadowbrook Farm, poses for a portrait In this Wednesday, March 1, 2017, photo, head grower Nathan Roehrich stands while speaking in
inside a greenhouse at Meadowbrook Farm in Jenkintown, Pa. a greenhouse where plants are growing for the Philadelphia Flower Show, at Meadowbrook Farm,
Associated Press in Jenkintown, Pa.
backstory of the blooms, gree cooler to make them Associated Press
which started their journey feel like it’s winter, then too much flowering ahead came a status symbol and goers can experience a
to the flower show last sum- transferred to the 68-de- of the show. Going back sparked a brief but ruinous different taste of the Neth-
mer at a quaint farm and gree greenhouse, deluded in the cooler puts that pro- bubble that saw tulip bulbs erlands.New this year is a
garden center nestled in into thinking it’s spring and cess on hold. sell for as much as the price spa where weary visitors
the rolling hills just outside time to shine. The farm’s 13 greenhouses of a house before the mar- can refresh with hand,
the city.Meadowbrook “It’s an art and a science,” are equipped with alarms ket crashed. shoulder and foot massag-
Farm, in suburban Jenkin- said Nathan Roehrich, the that trip if temperatures Tulips remain a fixture of the es and a make-your-own
town, is operated by the garden’s head grower. dip dramatically, said Jen- Dutch countryside and are essential oil and potpourri
horticultural society and “There are so many vari- ny Rose Carey, the farm’s the star of the Philadelphia activity.The annual event,
supplies flowers and plants ables. It’s all about know- senior director, alerting show.Floral and landscape which dates to 1829, serves
for many of the show’s 50 ing your plants.” the overnight caretaker exhibits in the 10-acre hall as a rite of spring for the re-
major exhibitors. On a recent afternoon, the to move the plants to a focus on various aspects of gion. Proceeds benefit the
Customers contact the farm had more of a feeling warmer spot. Dutch life: One is an ode Pennsylvania Horticultural
farm each summer with of a triage unit than a gar- Tulips, native to Asia, came to Amsterdam’s Red Light Society and its programs,
ideas for their show dis- den center. to the Netherlands in 1593, District; another highlights including an urban tree
plays and their plant wish- Workers hustled palates when botanist Carolus Clu- the city’s innovative bike planting campaign and
lists. Then workers go about of flowers from the green- sius planted the first bulb in share program that has City Harvest, which pro-
raising the plants and houses to a cooler, as the Dutch soil.During Holland’s spread to cities throughout vides locally grown, fresh
“forcing” the flowers. unseasonably warm Febru- “Tulip Mania” in the 17th the world, including Phila- produce for underserved
Plants need a certain ary day brought the risk of century, the flower be- delphia. families.q