Philadelphia Flower Show 2026 - Cool Colors

Cool and WET was what we had for weather here today. Lots and lots of rain. I hunkered down and got quite a lot done, even though it's never enough.

Anyway, here is the rest of the color wheel from the Philadelphia Flower Show.

For green, I chose this landscaped field from an exhibit by the Merchison Farm of New Jersey. Martha Brooks Hutcheson was one of the first female landscape architects, and she liked ecological plantings and traditional lines. The farm was her home.

This is part of an advertising display where the letters of the logo were filled with plant material. I think this is mostly dyed asparagus fern, so not exactly natural, but very, very blue! And very effective.

For something more natural, check out this lovely stone pathway lined with hyacinth.

Love this kale! It's Brassica oleracia 'Redbor.' I'd put this in my salad in a heartbeat, but I'd also love to look at it.

There are still lots of Flower Show pictures I can use to fill rainy days. There are several plants I want to share for sure. One is such a hot purple it couldn't really be included here. Stay tuned.

I have to do something besides sit in my chair for a while. My back gets sore!

See PFS 2026- Warm Colors

Fade to Blue

 As anyone local will tell you, the news today is that we actually got some snow.

Here was the situation at 2:30 this afternoon. We got enough that it derailed a hike we had planned for morning. Several people could not get out. But the snow stopped before noon.

There isn't much else to report from today. I've started working on tax prep. How's that for exciting? Right.

But I love trying to catch the blue light of dusk in pictures. Here was that same scene at 6:20 which actually looks brighter than the shot in the afternoon.

At 6:25

6:30

And 6:35

Which shade do you like best? I particularly like that it is no longer pitch dark at 6:30!

I also did some editing today.

See Another Blue Dusk

Philadelphia Flower Show - Blue

  Have you ever wondered why blue is a somewhat rare color in flowers? There are lots of shades of violet, but true blue is difficult to find. This exhibit, I'm not sure who created it, focused on blue. You'll notice, though, that the eye-catching display has a blue dress rather than blue flowers.

Look closely at the front of the dress, and you can see flowers spilling out, some of which are blueish purple.

The rest of their display wasn't very full with plants, but they tried to stick with blue. They largely featured Pulmonaria, Lungwort.

If you ever have dabbled with drying flowers, you already know that blue flowers don't dry blue. This can be very annoying when you would like to make a dried arrangement that preserves the color. Sometimes, the color it dries to is a help with identification. Blue lettuce may dry white or yellow depending on the species.

And here's my new fact for the day. I did not know this AT ALL, so I love it. Blue is a really difficult color for plants to produce. The minerals that are true blue in some forms are cobalt and copper (sulfate). But both of those minerals are highly toxic. Plants create anthocyanins which result in shades of color that range from purples to nearly black. (Side note- some purples are the results of betalains, such as beets). But blueberries, purple cabbage, dark autumn leaves, black beans, and many other plants are colored by anthocyanins.

But the plants have to sequester these chemicals within the cell so they don't poison the organism. Within plant cells are sacs called vacuoles. These are surrounded by a membrane that isolates the contents from the rest of the cell. (Specialized structures can move compounds in or out of the vacuoles)

Once the flower is picked and the cells no longer function as living things, the vacuoles break down and the anthocyanins fade. There weren't many blue flowers at the flower show this year although I can think of a few I did not see anywhere. However, there were hyacinths.

And my favorite of what I did see is blue Cineraria, Senetti (a trademark) Pericallis x hybrid.

I got back on track for working on my projects today and got a lot done.

See PFS- Chandelier

Blue Sky, Blue Water

  Mostly I painted today, white on white. But the color of the day outside was BLUE.

What an exquisite color!

Made a quick stop at Lincoln Lake to catch the color of the water.

It would be nearly impossible for me to be anything but happy with the world sharing these colors today!

In other news: I ran some errands and am working hard on an editing project.

See Not Quite Spring

Philadelphia Flower Show 2020 - Mare Nostrum

 
Let's go back to the Philadelphia Flower Show today. I'll show you my favorite of all the displays. Some of the pictures don't do it justice, but I did the best I could with the crowds and whatnot.

It was a display by the American Institute of Floral Design. This organization is "the oldest and largest non-profit organization dedicated to recognizing and promoting the art of floral design as a professional career." So, I'm not sure how to interpret that as to exactly who put the display together (a local subgroup?). But, it was stunning.

Their sign began, "Escape and enjoy the sights of Mare Nostrum, where the sky and the sea compete on who holds the truest of blues..."

The theme was Mare Nostrum - Our Sea. There were 12 components of the exhibit. I guess it would be picture overload if I showed you all of them (and some of the pictures aren't great) but they are The Ocean, The Wave, The Breeze, The Sky, Textiles, Pottery, Tile, The Arbor, Container Gardens, Homes on the Cliffs, Rooftops, and The Sail.

I'm starting with Tile, just because it's a really nice picture without much competition from surrounding stuff. And you can see how blue was dominant.


Three of the themes were about materials. Here is a portion of the Pottery display. I loved how the plants spilled from the pot.



The attention to detail was great. This is just one tiny element. You can see it in the above picture just left of center.



And Textile was rich with texture.


I loved the parts that focused on the big picture: The Ocean



The Sky



There was so much motion in these next two! The Breeze



and The Wave



I think I need to stop with the pictures for today. Container Gardens was a combination of traditional and whimsical and was staged under the walk-thru Arbor that was woven with lemon branches laden with fruit. Blue, yellow and white- my favorites, and then filled with green plants. Rooftops and Houses on the Cliffs were OK, but not as good as the ones I've showed you.

There were tall sails you could see from a long ways away to draw you to the exhibit, and one was interpreted with white flowers.



The most whimsical part? The foam on the waves was flowers and... marshmallows!



I really loved the colors, the arrangements, the combinations of plant material and other items, the richness and depth of the compositions, the theme... well, everything! This was my favorite display this year.

In other news: Cold and rainy again. I did some accounting stuff, mailed some things, and then started working on my last square for the Art Center Bingo. Stay tuned.

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Shades of Blue

 
The best part of today was an unexpected perk of going to the bank. They had a quilt on display that is being auctioned off to benefit the local school. It is hand pieced by local people, but machine quilted.



Not only is the color palette one of my favorites, but I love that each block is different. The quilt as a whole is named "Starstruck." I tried to look up some of the designs, but my book is very old (it was my grandmother's), and designs have evolved. Several of them are variations on the Lemoyne Star, including the large central star.

Here's a closer look at one motif, and the machine quilting.



P.S. Go figure. I'm not sore at all from yesterday. A tiny bit stiff, but no big deal. The uneven surface was much better than, say, a paved or road surface. On those, you just keep banging the same spots on joints and feet step after step. Still, I'm pleased that the body held up so well.

In other news: I was such a good girl today. I worked on financial accounts, miscellaneous things I needed to do, a couple of longish phone calls, errands, and then bell choir practice. I'm about ready for a meltdown from so much discipline, but I'm going to keep it up for 1 1/2 more days. Then I'm off for a vendor event and visits on the weekend.

See Cars, Quilts and Books

Let the Christmas Lights Begin

 
These are the lighted trees at the Methodist Church. It's dark now when we get out of bell choir practice. But you know I love blue.



In other news: I wrote in the morning, and worked on formatting in the afternoon. Then there was bell choir, and grocery shopping, and then a phone meeting, which just ended. Enough!

	See Let the Christmas Music Begin
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My Blue Heaven

 
Remember how I said I wouldn't spend all afternoon every day on the trailer? Well, I've managed to do just that yesterday until I had to get ready for the concert and today until dark. Thus... there isn't anything else to bring you.

No peeking inside! I'll show you the temporarily "finished" interior on Thursday night.

This is my little (blue) slice of heaven. I'm tickled that it's going to be so much nicer inside than when we used it in the spring.



However, the house is now a complete trash pile. All the storage containers I have bought for the trailer, I'd been using inside to store tools and hardware and all the things I need to work on the trailer. Now it's basically dumped all over and I'm hunting for decent boxes to put all that in before I leave.

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Philadelphia Flower Show 2019- Blue

 
It's really difficult to find flowers that are true blue. They tend to wander off toward purple. But I think these displays capture blue blue.

The color you place with blue makes a big difference in its perception. Here is a pale blue grape hyacinth with white tulips. Since I think blue and white together is close to perfection, you can be quite certain I liked this. (Possibly Muscari botryoides)



Here, the blue stands out because its been paired with real purple. This is another of the displays based on color like the green one shown yesterday. Blue is for "Genesis... Awakening... Arise..." Larkspur are the blue here.



Next up is a kind of goofy display. I liked it, but an awful lot of people didn't. This was part of the same display as the orange from a few days ago with neon tubes. The point of the displays was how people interacted with plants. The stacks of painted paper plates look to me sort of like ancient crinoid stems (fossil plants). Blue and purple are mixed. There are various blue/purple flowers tucked in beside the stacks.

If you are thinking of a classic garden and say "blue," someone is sure to answer "delphinium." And sure enough, we have some.



I'm pretty sure this is Corydalis flexuosa, blue fumitory. I couldn't find a label. And the picture is not in focus. Bummer on so many levels! It is a beautiful pale blue and delicate, perhaps the variety 'China blue.'



Finally, this Anemone coronaria 'Mister Fokker' won a red ribbon in its class.



I hope you are enjoying the colors. It's still gray and brown here.

In other news: I did laundry and hung the clothes outside today. They did get dry even though it was cold. Love that fresh outdoor scent. I worked on North Country Quest in the morning, and then wrote something for North Star in the afternoon. Took a 3 mile walk. That pretty much does in the day.

	See Green
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Blue Tiles

 

I liked the tiles in the pillars at the mall.



Too pooped to tell you much else.



The news is good. I made more sales today, so at least the day wasn't a financial disaster. I may have a program in Albany in the next week or two.

	See Blue
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