By Jessica McClelland
Staff Writer

At the 185th annual Flower Show in Philadelphia, people took gardening to a higher level. From a simple flower pot with Tulips, to hats made out of plants, it’s hard to believe everything is made out of flowers.

This year, the theme of the show, ARTiculture, was based off of artists from every era of time like Michelangelo and Picasso. The main piece which was featured in the front of the show was based off of an artist named Alexander Calder, who is known for creating mobiles in 1932. The artists who made this, Sam Lemheney and Barb King, created the big hanging sculpture to represent the mobiles made by Calder.

People from all over the country spend quite some time growing their plants in many different places like mini greenhouses and their own bedroom. Even though they have plenty of time in advanced to know the theme and when it is, the artists only have one week to set everything up.

“It’s cool how fast these artists put everything together,” said sophmore Miranda Lutrario. “It’s gardening to the extreme.”

The extraordinary hanging garden, inspired by Calder, was made with Hyacinths, Daisies, Sunpatiens, Red Celosia, Blue Salvia, Marigolds, Schizanthus, Tiger Eye Violas, and a few other plants. On some nights, they even had an aerial dance troupe named Bandaloop hanging and doing tricks around the work.

At the flower show, there were thousands of plants from all different shapes and sizes. Some were encased in planetariums; others are growing tall, strong and are painted pink or green. There were little dozens of cacti, and trees as old as 150 years like the Ponderosa.

Some people even set up scenes like a cabin by a lake or a place out on a farm. These bigger projects were done by organizations of people from museums or art schools. Some other works are pressed plants that were formed into pictures like a piano or a city, pottery that is inspired by Vincent Van Gough, and jewelry that you can wear made completely out of twigs and little flowers. People got awarded ribbons by how well done their pieces are by a group of judges on opening night.

While walking around, thousands of people are admiring all the works. Everyone was mesmerized by the creative works.

“It’s definitely a lot of work and paperwork and a lot of planning enough space for everyone to have a good show. Everyone who leaves here gets so inspired and it luckily takes you out of the cold,” said director and worker of the flower show, Ed Macfarland. “Luckily there was no snow this week.”

The Flower Show in all is always an amazing experience. It brings flower lovers, gardeners, and landscapers from all over the country together under one roof. “People come here to get ideas for their own home, for social time, and to make friends,” Macfarland said.

The show is not just made of flowers; it’s made of art masterpieces.