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

Flashback to Flower Show 2010

  I was SO good today. I worked on all my projects a little bit. I put away all the mess created by moving and fixing the table. I added 800 words to Vacation from Dead Mule Swamp.

One of my projects has been to try to organize pictures better so I can actually find things. Got to the SD card with the 2010 Philadelphia Flower Show. There are so many wonderful things at each of these shows that I never show you all of them. Today I'll share a few that I didn't in 2010. That said, the pictures on the old blog entries are gone because the server where they were is no more. I'll try to restore those over the next few days. The link below is to the first entry with the theme of the show which was "Passport to the World."

First up for today is this study in green in the China exhibit. It features moss, spider chrysanthemums, Cypridium orchids hanging down, and what I think might be a 'Melted Wax' echiveria. When the plants aren't labeled, I'm often doing nothing more than making educated guesses.

I guess I'll focus on yellow/yellow-green today. This was one of the entries in the category of "Porches." There are often themed entries like window boxes, a reading room, potting sheds, front yards, etc. If you've followed the flower show entries over the years, or if you attend, you know what I mean.

I THINK the bright yellow-green here is 'Neon' Pothos, or Philadendron. I love how it contrasts with the New Zealand Flax (not a flax) which is the red/purple spiky stuff. Lots of good textures going on here too.

I don't have much of a clue what any of these plants are, but they were in the Africa display. I try to take pictures of labels, but sometimes things aren't labeled, and sometimes, I just don't find them or get a photo.

Actually, the things in the lower front may be artichokes, and the upper back may be Leucadendon 'Inca Gold.'

There is a reasonable chance that I will get to go to the 2025 Philadelphia Flower Show. Really looking forward to that. It's one of the highlights of my year when I get to attend. I believe I've been to nine of them. Every once in a while, there is a sort of dud, but each one is guaranteed to be different!

See Passport to the World

A New Pose

 With all the chipmunk pictures I've taken over the years, this is a completely new pose. It was running away from me and just stopped with its hips spread wide, ready to leap at a moment's notice. Which it did!

I guess the pose isn't new for me, but the background for the shadow is. There is so much algae piled up along the shore of Lincoln Lake it's solid green. It made a nice picture.

By contrast, the lake was bright blue. The weather has cooled a bit. It felt great. Just right for a walk before bell choir practice.

This is a nice park with a paved trail circling through it. I don't walk here as often as I might because it gets a lot of use, and I prefer more solitude and natural trails. There is a non-paved mountain bike route through it which I often walk, but it's really for cyclists, and I hate it when I get "caught" on their trail. Walkers disrupt their riding.

This is a part of the trail beside the lake, but the important thing to notice here is the white tree tubes. There has recently been a big project to remove alien Oriental Bittersweet and Tree-of-Heaven (Ailanthus). There are native trees being planted in their place (currently protected in the tubes), but I don't know what.

Another nice feature along the water is this large gazebo. There are native plantings around it too, but I wasn't able to get any decent pictures. The flowers are really well past prime here.

A lot of the paved trail isn't very picturesque, but this curve always looks inviting.

It smelled like fall in the park- that unmistakable scent of autumn aspen.

I spent most of the day on my "project," which although I'm pretty obsessed, isn't really a priority. Sigh. I need to divert my attention to more important things. This walk only managed to get me 2.3 miles before bell choir.

Miles walked in 2024: 470.9

See Six Miles with Cathy

Philadelphia Flower Show 2019 - Green

 
You might think that at something like the Philadelphia Flower Show, entirely dedicated to plants, that green would be too obvious. But there are many shades of green. It was hard, but I picked just a few to showcase today.

The darling of the 2019 show was a new variety of Hellebore, the Lenten Rose, that has a greenish white flower. It's nestled here with some small hybrid roses with dark green foliage, dusty miller, foamflower, and a maroon Heuchera.



I liked this selection of greens not only for the various shades, but the shapes. It's part of the World Cup exhibit by the UK.



Next up is a startling yellow-green fern. Not only the color is startling. This is a Boston Fern, Nephrolepis exaltata. But it's a finely cut cultivar called 'Suzi Wong.' Weird!



For varieties of green it was hard to been this topiary turtle with so many succulents. I really liked this one. It only took second place in the topiaries, probably because the winner was a classic one with ivy over a frame that was exquisitely done, with no bare spots. But, I still like the turtle.



This next bouquet comes from a commercial florist exhibit that had one display for each color with motivational words. For green they chose things like Accomplishment, Victory, Climbing the Mountain, Glory, etc.



Green can be so many things. This succulent won a ribbon in its class. It's a cross between a Gastera and an Aloe, called, duh, Gasteraloe. This variety is 'Green Ice.' I like it!



For a parting shot, we'll go to dark green and fuzzy. This is a Petrocosmea rosettifolia, and this specimen won a blue ribbon. I had to look this up to find out more about it. It's a relative of the African Violet, but comes from China. When it blooms, it has beautiful asymmetrical flowers on stems that grow up from the rosette. But I would consider even the leaves very attractive.



It was hard to pick just a few, but you'll see more beautiful variations on green in some other categories I hope to share. It's still cold and gloomy here. Very windy today.

In other news: I finished taking notes from the tape I've been working on this morning, and cleaned up the living room in the afternoon. Just for a moment I had a strong urge to clear and clean my office. But it was not irresistible. Too bad... I'd really like my office to be clean, but it's never yet offered to do it by itself.

	See Yellow
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Primary Patterns

 
Bright colors, intriguing shapes. All high on my list. Can you figure this one out?



Back to Dow Gardens- those red railings were purposefully designed to have interesting lines to carry the eye.


One of these days, I'm going to manage to get a really good picture like this. Meanwhile, this one isn't too shabby.



I thought I was going to have some good pictures of my hawk for you, but not a single one is in focus.

In other news: I worked at Shagway all afternoon, and did some things for Writers' Rendezvous.

	See Dow Gardens Paterns
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Blue and Green

 
Blue and green. Two of my favorite things about summer-- grass, sky, trees, water.

But the other day as I was passing through the press room at work, they had just started up. At that stage, the plates haven't yet "worked up" their charge to resist the ink except in the correct places. So the entire sheet of newsprint is colored for a short amount of time.

Blue and green it is! And in its own way, it's pretty.



A fitting segue into the fact that it's Friday night and I'm soon headed back to work. At least I have no event tomorrow except maybe mowing some lawn and some preparation for an adventure next weekend. Stay tuned!

	See Green and Blue
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Buckeye Trail- Akron Points 25- 31

 
The last hiking day for this trip, and it was all over too soon. The temperature wasn't as bad as the day before, which was awesome enough, and most of the trail was shaded as well. We did get out early, and with a latrine at the trailhead there was no potty crisis (probably TMI, but these things are critical to hikers!). I finished hiking at 2 pm. The day was defined by the canal, since I was on the towpath trail the entire day.

This is just a study in cool greens at the waterway's edge.



I met Marie for early lunch at Canal Fulton, which is where we discovered the canal boat ride. We checked on times and made a reservation for the 2:30 run, which was the last regular one of the day. (There was an evening theater ride, "Death on the Canal," by a local author. That would have been fun, but it was more money and later than we wanted to stay.) The interpreter was very good, covering a lot of history in an interesting manner. He also played banjo and harmonica! The city is 102 years old, and had this plaque made for their centennial.



Lock 4 is complete with water gates and is in working order. It's where the boat ride turns around, although they no longer put boats through the lock (that was a little disappointing, although I've been through a lock at Grand Rapids, Ohio). With the lockkeeper's house restored, and people nearby, even fishing, it looks much as it would have almost 200 years ago except for the clothing and stroller!



Commentary on the canal would not be complete without showing you one of the mile markers which dot the way.


Almost quicker than seemed possible I reached the end of the Akron map and the corner we hiked past on the Massillon map two years ago.


Yes, of course, we got celebratory ice cream before taking the canal boat ride.

This completes for me what's known as the Little Loop of the Buckeye Trail, and as I figured out a couple of days ago, I only have 194 miles to finish that trail. (In three widely spaced locations.) But you know I've got the itch.

I have more pictures from this hike to share- plants and animals, and one other tour we took. Tomorrow we'll leave off the blow by blow, and go to some other Ohio topics. These are way more interesting than real life right now, anyway!

	See Buckeye Trail- Akron 18-25
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Philadelphia Flower Show 2015- Color

 
One of the things I need most at this time of year is color, and the Philadelphia Flower Show always provides me with lots of that. Tonight here's a color wheel for you. OK. it's a strip, but you get the idea. Here, the snow has disappeared in a flash, but no green yet.

Red (ish)

Orange


Yellow


Green


Blue


Purple

	See Inspired by Movies
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Green and Blue

 
OK, if I can't have green and blue outside, or even much hope of it, I'll get them any way I can.

Green



Blue



Guess what color we got more of here, today.

	See Blue
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