Daina Savage

It’s time for the overwhelming visual cacophony that is the Philadelphia Flower Show, with displays that suspend disbelief in a combination Cirque du Soleil-Mummers Parade riot of color and structure.
This grandmommy of all flower shows, now in its 182nd year, offers a globe-trotting theme “Passport to the World.” The show opens Feb. 28 and runs through Mar. 7.
The central feature takes a page from the Rose Parade with a towering 28-foot-high hot-air balloon covered in more than 79,000 dried flowers. This Victorian-era Explorer’s Garden display is a nod to the flower show’s roots of introducing newly discovered international plants to American audiences like magnolias, peonies, birds of paradise, camilla and rubber trees. Oversized Wardian cases showcasing giant floating waterlily pads and blooms will be placed throughout the main feature, mixed with heritage plants collected through the 1838-42 Wilkes Expedition and more recent finds from Longwood Gardens Inc., Morris Arboretum, the University of Pennsylvania, and the U.S. Botanic Gardens.
This year the flower show has added the word International to its name to better reflect the influence and participation of horticulturalists and designers from around the world. In the feature gardens, visitors will encounter life-size elephant floral topiary next to lotus-filled pool in India, 100,000 flowering bulbs in the Netherlands, Zulu headdresses and drummers in the South African display, a plunging 15-foot Brazilian jungle waterfall, a formal orchid celebration in Singapore, and a Maori celebration of native New Zealand plants.
Also the landscapes and plants of China, Japan, Thailand, England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, the Caribbean, and an artful perspective on the northern polar region’s Aurora Borealis will all be featured in the show.
Complementing the international flavor, daily musical and dance performances will be held on the Explorer’s Stage, including classical Indian musicians Bollywood-style dances, and Brazilian music and dance. And look out overhead as handlers from the Philadelphia Zoo set exotic trained parrots aloft throughout the show to add to the spectacle.
For those flower-weary, cooking demonstrations, wine tastings, and a display of fashions will also be featured. A bevy of activities appeals to the younger set, with family friendly pricing packages designed to woo all and a special program to teach kids how to create their own home vegetable gardens.

Navigating the show
Serious plant lovers will spend the entire day, if not multiple days to take it all in. The more casual visitors should plan for at least five hours. Basic tickets are $23, but a number of special packages are available.
A favorite stress-free way to take it all in is to hop aboard Amtrak, then take SEPTA to the convention center (free with your Amtrak ticket stub). Before you walk into the Convention Center, stop next door at the Reading Terminal Market to fill up on great, fresh food, much of it grown here. After the show, Chinatown makes for a good dinner option, but with so many great restaurants to choose from, you may want to research one to suit your tastes before you arrive. Many are serving up special Flower Show menus and pricing discounts.
If possible, avoid visiting March 6, as the only Saturday of the flower show is often the most packed.
Another strategy, visit the vendors in the Marketplace and check out the results in the competitive classes in the morning, taking in the major exhibits after noon when the crowds tend to thin.
Give your feet a rest at one of the 150 scheduled gardening presentations.
Bring a camera and a notepad to document plants you want to try this year, or save up for eventually. A number of displays will feature hardy, easy-to-grow plants for novice gardeners.
The show runs from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays, from 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. through the week and from 8 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Now, as the snow melts and the maple trees turn tumescent, it’s sugar-harvesting time.
Miles of plastic tubing may have replaced the traditional buckets, but the end result remains just as sweet.
Mary Lee Zechman, known as “The Maple Lady” in Lancaster County, recalls the intense labor needed to collect when the sap was running in the maple trees on her family’s Tioga farm.
“We were always cold and wet,” she recalls. “My dad would build a fire in the woods for us to warm up with, and in the sugar shack, he would hard boil eggs in the sap for us to eat. Our greatest treat was to get to spend the night with him in the sugar shack, sleeping on cardboard atop the wood piles while he read Zane Grey novels to stay awake.”
Her brother Richard Patterson became a maple syrup entrepreneur as a teen, creating his own candy cakes in muffin tins to sell at school. He later took over the Sabinsville farm, growing the operation from the 600 buckets collected by horse drawn sleigh of his childhood to the 80,000 taps carrying sap through hundreds of miles of tubing through the woods to the modern evaporator.
He expects to harvest 1.6 million gallons of sap this year, yielding 30,000 gallons of syrup during the intense six-week season, which still necessitates 24-hour vigils.
“If the sap’s running, we’re boiling,” says Zechman.
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The best way to beat the midwinter blues? Take a road trip to the charm city for a sensory stimulation to carry you through until spring. A quick day trip yielded towering dinosaurs, a glam version of Icarus soaring through the heavens, and a fanciful confectionary creation that left us hungry for more. First stop, the Maryland Science Center with its dinosaur hall, hands-on kinetic Newton’s Alley room, and gross-out body exhibits including the guess-that-sound display. Of course we had to try out the bed of nail as well as get our goggles and lab coats on for the WetLab experiments. Truly interactive, with a “please touch” ethos, the Science Center inspires wonder in the small set and engages otherwise jaded teens. The grown-ups got their giggle on as well, engaging the laws of physics through play.

Next stop, the nearby American Visionary Art Museum, is a “wow” at first sight with its tiled mirrored exterior, towering kinetic sculptures, and whimsical appendages including a bird’s nest, pointing hand, and sparkle tree. Inside, the exhibits are a mix of playful inventiveness and touching expressions of creative souls. The untrained artists on display evoke wonder and whimsy. Housed in the annex, the hands-on kinetic exhibits are the most kid-friendly of the displays. The outdoor sculpture exhibit with its spectacular tree fort is a favorite.
A late lunch at Mr. Rain’s Fun House on the third floor of the museum made for a spectacular and memorable conclusion to the visit. The restaurant carries the fun and funky vibe of the museum through its decor and menu, featuring 1950s era American classic comfort foods punched up with an internationally-influnced twist. Entrees are colorful and inventive, but it was the dessert that made a lasting impression.

The Cotton Candy Baked Alaska is alone worth the trip. This mid-century American classic turns into a festive volcano of pink and blue cotton candy flavored ice cream and meringue, with a lava explosion of cotton candy flowing down the sides.
A stroll through the Inner Harbor is a necessity of every Baltimore trip, and walking off lunch makes room for a second treat at the amazing Pitango Gelato with its clean, classic flavors crafted from grass-fed organic milk. Our favorite midwinter splurge? The unbelievably decadent hot chocolate. Pure liquid indulgence.
Satiated in mind and body, we’re fortified to weather the rest winter plans to dish up.

In a snow-covered landscape, plants that spice up that expanse of white make the winter more interesting. Evergreen boughs iced with a frosting of snow, multicolored peeling bark, deciduous branches cupping icy decorations, lingering berries on shrubs and trees, and the seed heads of fall blooming perennials all break up the monotony of the bleakest of seasons. Now’s the time to check out the bones of your garden and see what structure is missing. Check out your neighborhood for the plants that make the winter more colorful to add to your spring shopping list.

A love of artisanal foods naturally leads to a desire to try your hand at making your own. Unfortunately, my first attempts at the ancient culinary craft of cheesemaking were, frankly, embarrassing.
Inspired after reading Barbara Kingsolver’s book “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life,” I had dreams of making my own mozzarella to top grilled pizzas and tuck between slices of heirloom tomatoes and basil.
I procured the milk, rennet tablets and citric acid to make the “30 Minute Mozzarella Magic” created by “Cheese Queen” Ricki Carroll, whose “Home Cheese Making” manual has inspired legions of novices to turn into cheesemakers. The founder of the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company in 1978 in an attempt to preserve the milk on her own farm, she has taught more than 7,000 people how to make cheese in workshops, not to mention the more than 100,000 who bought her book and presumably attempted it on their own. Read the rest of this entry »

After all the glitter and baubles from the holidays are put away, we embrace the simplicity of winter. Yet we still seem to hunger for a bit of color to remind us that spring will come again. Thankfully, long-blooming orchids fit the bill, with their stark, elegant lines, culminating in a singular spray of heady, extravagant blossoms. Varieties of phalaenopsis and dendrobium orchids are generally the best for beginners. When you’re starting out, it’s best to match your selection with your home’s conditions, rather than trying to artificially create an environment for a fussy, expensive showpiece. When you’re ready for a challenge, the Susquehanna Orchid Society and Little Brook Orchids can be helpful resources.

“It came, a floweret bright, amid the cold of winter.”

Walking through the Tanger Arboretum next to Wheatland Mansion, I was surprised to see a bed of blooming iris on St. Nicholas Day. Added to the garden about two years ago, they came from a Wheatland Garden Club member’s garden as pass-along plants from her grandmother. So old, they probably aren’t even a named cultivar. According to club co-founder Donna Mentzer, “this is the first year they have bloomed, which would be consistent with the remontant, or reblooming iris which need to be establish for two to three years before rebloom.”
Donna shares that “there is an old yellow cultivar called ‘Sangreal’ that was hybridized back in the 1930s and also a nice yellow iris with a bit of ruffle that was hybridized in 1987 by Beyers – it is a consistent rebloomer and was named ‘Billionairie’. I don’t know the parentage of either, but it seems this may have been a parent for one or both of these, judging from the great bloom. Since this is the first rebloom, I can’t tell if this is when they would normally bloom or if the rather warm autumn was the cause.”
Although there are a number of reblooming iris on the market, Donna is partial to a pure white cultivar called “Immortality,” which she says is one of the oldest and most reliable.

Sure plenty of trees have great fall color, but how many smell like cotton candy? As the county’s autumn fairs finish, it’s a way to recapture that festival scent a little later into the season. The lovely heart shaped leaves of the Katsura tree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) turn a mix of bright yellows, pinks and orange-reds in the autumn. But after they’ve dried and fallen, the fragrant leaves release a strong sweet fragrance when crushed or chopped in a mower. The scent is often described as burnt brown sugar or cotton candy.
It’s a fast-growing shade tree, often multi-stemmed, when it planted in moist soil, but is very sensitive to drought. When mature, it also will exhibit some bark peeling for winter interest.

It’s a reason to hold out hope for a late freeze. Just when they’ve come into their own in prolific showy displays, upward facing daturas and pendulous brugmansias make a heroic last stand in the face of their certain demise. Incongruous amidst the surrounding autumn foliage, these tropical beauties, more commonly known as Angel Trumpets, herald their end exuberantly. Terribly toxic, wear gloves when removing dying stalks from the garden. Brugmansia cuttings can be potted and overwintered in cool, dark spots that don’t freeze, like an unheated cellar. Collect datura seeds and start new plants in the spring.

Sure it won’t be the showiest plant in your landscape, and if you’re lucky, many of the leaves will have holes in them by the end of the month, but planting some perennial milkweed (Asclepias) in your garden can bring longer lasting delights than just a few blooms. Sure the flowers are interesting and the seed pods are terrific for crafting. But most importantly, the broad leafed plant plays host for the yellow and black striped Monarch caterpillars, who voraciously work their way through the leaves, seeming to double in size each day. The caterpillars themselves are lovely, and their jade green chrysalis trimmed in gold look like tiny jewels. But the real delight is the lingering garden visitor in autumn colors of oranges, rusts and blacks, who will migrate to Mexico, and just may return next year.