The 2010 Philadelphia Flower Show is the best I've seen in either 15 years or ever

Someone will no doubt disagree with me about this but so far all I've heard are raves. Every year I consider breaking my 20? year streak of attending the show. It's always crowded, it's 2 hours away, and spring is almost here anyway.....this wouldn't have been a good year to skip. "Islands in the Sun" 15 years ago was my previous favorite show but this year's has displaced it. Somethings different.

There is more creativity, originality, imagination in the individual exhibits. More of them are interactive; in one you borrow flashlights before walking through an unlit bamboo grove filled with cool things. The next exhibit has surreal arrangements of color in blindingly well lit cargo containers. And so on. I have never seen any evidence, in past shows, that consideration was given to the juxtaposition of exhibits. I like it. It make the individual exhibits part of a coherent and unified whole.

There are always some exciting and original exhibits and there are always some "standard flower show exhibits": some grass, a path,  a water feature, some trees, azaleas, fothergillas, miscellaneous shrubs, pastel flowers, maybe a bridge. Beautiful, serene, pleasant enough in the context of our winters but less than thrilling. Even these seem to have been spiced up, given focal points of brighter colors. I hesitate to suggest activities, but if you could get to this show, you might want to go for it. It's open through Sunday the 7th and inexplicably, attendance was down, so moving around is easier!