It was at the first Philadelphia Flower Show in 1829 that a sophisticated audience of gardeners first laid eyes on some spectacular, must-have plants.
There were rare and fragrant peonies from China, an exotic "coffee tree of Arabia," a double-white pomegranate, a strange new thing called a poinsettia, and a big-leaf magnolia with gonzo blooms measuring four feet around.
The 2013 flower show held earlier this month also debuted some plants, although they weren't nearly as bodacious as those first ones. Perhaps, in time, that will change. The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, the show's producer, wants to return to those heady days by persuading breeders to formally introduce their best stuff to the public every year at the show.
"I think the industry doesn't think our flower show has the ability to get the word out about plants. They don't have experience with us," says Sam Lemheney, the show's design director, who nonetheless persuaded three of the eight or nine breeders he approached this year.
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