The official start of spring is still weeks away, and several pages of the calendar may need to be turned before it's time to dig into another season of planting.
But winter-weary gardeners need look no further for buds and blossoms than March 5, when the venerated Philadelphia Flower Show opens its doors for an eight-day run.
Touted as one of the oldest, largest and most prestigious indoor shows in the world, the Philadelphia show has been a traditional rite of spring since 1829. Expert nursery growers will transform 6 acres within the Philadelphia Civic Center into lavish displays -- some costing as much as $100,000 to create -- that reflect the latest in gardening designs and materials.
"It's a breath of spring in March," says Madeline Marr, a spokeswoman for the show's producer, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. "People come for the sheer beauty and the perfume of this show."
Two new roses will debut there: a deep gold, 30-to-35-petal grandiflora rose with pointed buds that open into a 4-inch diameter flower named Golden Eagle, and a 20-petal hybrid tea rose in iridescent shades of pink and cream that is named for actress Angela Lansbury.
Three rival orchid collectors will join to display 300 prize plants in one tropical hillside exhibit. And the Jacques Amand Bulb Specialists will display 200 varieties of rare and unusual imported bulbs never before shown in the United States, including anemones, colchicum, miniature tulips and dwarf irises.
"This is probably the premiere show in the United States," says ElaineWiggers, American contact for the British-based Jacques Amand firm, which recently began distributing from Potomac, in Montgomery County. "It's incredible."
About 230,000 visitors are expected at the show, which, after three decades at the Civic Center, moves next year to the new and larger Pennsylvania Convention Center.
This year's theme is "Moments in Time: A Galaxy of Gardens." Five central exhibits will illustrate horticultural history from the days of the ancient Romans to the space age, as they explore popular practices of the past and techniques of the future.
The journey begins in a classical garden, where a reflecting pool and a dripping wall fountain will be set amid white Roman columns and cascading bouquets of white French tulips.
A Shakespearean garden will re-create a theatrical setting with a mix of roses and other colorful, textured blooms.
A series of floral party scenes will highlight celebrations such as the Kentucky Derby, a summer beach party in New England, a children's party and Mardi Gras.
Futuristic exhibits will create floral fantasies in a family space station with bubbling water-purification columns and a climate-controlled garden chamber. A garden landscape will flourish with genetically enhanced cactuses growing in water, roses growing in the shade and large, textured, red banana trees thriving beside ornamental grasses.
"I don't think any other show has so much forced plant material so far out of season," says exhibitor Jack Blandy, owner of Stoney Bank Nurseries of Glen Mills, Pa. "It forces exhibitors to do a lot of strange things to plants in order to get them to bloom."
(That includes hot-water treatments, refrigeration, under-the-bench heating and sodium vapor lamps.)
Dozens of additional exhibitors will create Amazon jungle hideaways with native Peruvian flowers, fill an agricultural space station with a cargo of richly colored African violets and even re-create a World War II Victory Garden.
A 16-foot replica of the Eiffel tower will pay tribute to French gardening, and a tranquil beach setting with pines, river birches and grasses will create a private retreat.
Thousands of bright, yellow, dancing-doll orchids will bloom beside a waterfall in a lush tropical rain forest, and cutout plastic milk-jug pieces will sway in a whimsical collection of hanging garden mobiles that feature nursery-rhyme characters.
More than 2,000 additional displays of plants and flower arrangements will be judged in competitive artistic and horticultural divisions. Lectures and demonstrations will be conducted throughout the show.
"This is a very special show," says Marylander Mary Lou Riddle of Stillridge Herb Farm in Woodstock, who will be selling a large variety of wreaths, floral arrangements and other herbal gifts in the marketplace. "It is so spectacular, and it has always been an inspiration of mine."
Among the landscaping trends providing this year's inspiration will be:
* Nightscaping: Outdoor living spaces are subtly illuminated with low-voltage lighting to create areas of interest.
* Water features: Growing in popularity and size, water gardens are moving away from simple ponds and toward naturalistic streams, waterfalls and basins that are low-maintenance and deep enough to sustain fish year-round.
* Native plants: Landscape designers are using more plant material that is resistant to drought, deer and pests and doesn't require sprays.
Native plants such as viburnums, river birch and members of the witch hazel family are often used.
* Old-fashioned favorites: Dahlias, baby's breath, gladiolas, bleeding hearts, Jacob's ladder, peonies, hydrangeas and lilacs are making a comeback. And the sunflower -- once reserved for vegetable gardens -- is available in dwarf varieties and is popping up as a backdrop for plantings of annuals. It is available in red, orange and yellow.
* Play areas: Children's swing sets are being blended into harmonious landscaping designs.
For example, a display created by Eberhardt Landscapes & Design of West Chester, Pa., will combine aesthetics with safety, security and easy supervision.
* Smaller scale: More personalized, intimate garden spaces replace large patios and grandiose front lawns that impress the neighbors.
Homeowners like "peekaboo" gardens with small statuary, a naturalistic pond, or a hideaway with a bench near a tree, says Duane McCarthy of Land Design & Construction in Lafayette Hill, Pa.
BUDS AND BLOOMS
What: Philadelphia Flower Show
When: March 5-12; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. both Sundays, 10 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday
Where: Philadelphia Civic Center, 34th Street and Civic Center Boulevard
Cost: Adults, $12.50; children under 12, $6.25
Information: 24-hour Flower Show InfoLine, (215) 625-8253; travel and accommodations, (800) 444-7666