For many years, our GC has used Fall bulb sales as a fund raiser. During the past couple of years, sales of many of the popular bulbs has declined, to a point where it is no longer profitable to offer them. There are several reasons for this: One. the box stores offer them in bulk, at cheap prices. Two. The interest in outdoor gardening is waning. This Fall we are only offering Amaryllis(Hippeastrum) and other bulbs that can be grown indoors, such as Paperwhites, Cyclamen, Scilla, etc. The only outdoor bulbs that we ordered this year are several of Species Tulip varieties. They are a novelty here and are not available locally. Yet! We always purchase our bulbs from van engelen, as they have a very good fund raiser program and usually include bonus bulbs. Our experience may not reflect the situation in your area. It would probably be a good idea to check with some gardening friends to determine their plans for Fall bulb planting and the types they want to use. The MG fund raisers around here always include perennials, shrubs and trees. The more unusual ones are first ones to be sold, at a healthy markup! Good luck! Rb

Yes, a few varieties are hardier than others, and xJohnsonii is one of them, I believe... but none of them are hardy as far north as I live. I'm in zone 5, and our winters are more than just cold! We have quite a few days of below zero wind chill, frozen ground, not always enough snow cover for insulation, and sometimes we have early thaws and late frosts... so I wouldn't trust any variety to survive our winters! This past winter caused some damage to a few plants in our garden... I can see that a hydrangea and a few other plants are the victims of frost heave... the rains we've had recently have washed away some of the mulch cover... gardening in zone 5 has its challenges! I wouldn't trust any hippeastrum to survive winter farther north than zone 7... and if I gardened in that zone, I'd heavily mulch anything considered tender!

Kristi, Was wondering if it was because they were similar. Also wondered if you had bloomed Grand Diva yet(or seen one) as I ordered one too but have seen pictures on the web that show it as a deep deep burgundy and as ...well...red. Hoping for at least a deep burgundy throat..hoping is key here! Don't breed because my hippies have some kind of cloning thing going on and I am beginning to give blooming offsets away in the spring (lemon lime is amazing for this) however, that being said...the pictures of that almost black black one had me wondering if breeding Grand Diva to something purple (purple rain?) might move in that direction. Please say no, please please discourage me, I really don't need to do this.....but that picture...LOL

"Is the emphasis on floral design typical or just in keeping with this year�s theme?" Interesting question, Babs, and one we have been asking ourselves a lot these last few years. . .it turns out there are a lot of complicated and overlapping reasons. The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS), which produces the show, celebrated it's 175th anniversary with the show in 2004. . .but it also marked the retirement of Ed Lindemann, the show's brilliant designer/ director for 25 incredible years. In an organization as large as PHS, a staff change at that level can have all kinds of ripple effects; just five years later, another tecotnic shift when the longtime president of PHS, Jane Pepper, stepped down. So, with fresh blood and new ideas at the highest levels, plus the show's dramatic new visibility in it's new home in central Philadelphia since 1996, AND the study this season which showed that the Flower Show has a 61 million dollar economic impact on the city. . . well, the landscape has changed. In order to keep the show growing and earning dollars - it IS a fundraiser, after all, and the primary means by which PHS supports all it's other remarkable programs like Philadelphia Green - there is the understandable inclination to try to make the show more accessible to the general (non-gardening) public, i.e. popularizing it. Stunning floral displays - as in the Rose Bowl Parade - are a logical way to go, albeit not to the taste of many gardeners. Don't get me wrong: even as a diehard gardener, I have to admit that some of these displays are awesome. . .just look at some of Jane's pictures again! Along with this trend toward "popularization", consider the economics: being an exhibitor in a show of this magnitude is crushingly expensive, which partially explains the recent attrition rate - two years ago, we lost one of the biggest and best exhibitors in recent memory, J. Franklin Styer Nurseries, who would win Best-In-Show medals year after year. These were the kind of garden displays we would make a beeline for every year: "What did Styer come up with this year?" Why the swan song? Styer was bought out by Urban Oufitters in 2009, and has been transformed into an upscale place called "Trend", a sort of Smith & Hawkin-on-steroids. I'll pause momentarily while we all shudder. . . This year, we lost another major exhibitor, J. Cugliotta Landscape/Nursery which was already in it's third generation at the show. . .still haven't heard the scoop on this retirement, but I can't help wondering if it didn't have something to do with the demise of their #1 competitor over the years, J. Franklin Styer. We also lost Lindekin Water Gardens, where you could always expect to find fascinating ponds, pools, streams, waterfalls and all things water related. . .gone. For many of these landscapers/nurseries, it must be hard to justify the daunting expense (many thousands of dollars) of a major display, unless it is generating compensatory new business. And the additional labor costs of installing a garden display are far greater than for a floral design display - and as much as I hate to say it (because I'm generally pro-union) the labor unions at these big convention halls are making a killing . . .thank heaven for the thousands of volunteers donating endless hours of time throughout the shows' entire run. It literally could not go on without them. . . In all honesty, I think the days of those overwhelming, jaw-dropping garden displays we all salivated over, are basically done. . .I'm just grateful to have had a ring-side seat all these years. I cut my teeth on The Boston Flower Show (at the old Horticultural Hall across from Symphony Hall) when I was just a little tyke; and then I discovered my first Philadelphia Flower Show back in the 1960's, and I haven't missed too many since then. There are glimmers of hope: Michael Petrie, the brilliant designer for all the Styer exhibits since 2001, now has his own outfit, called Handmade Gardens, and they had TWO displays this year, both of them exceptional. The huge Horticourt, which displays all the competitive classes (it's a whole show unto itself!) is very much alive and thriving. As always, PHS insists that all the 130+ vendors in the Marketplace be "garden related" - no fear of being hustled to purchase life insurance or the latest kitchen gadget! There are two major corporate sponsors now (this kind of thing has been evolving over the last decade): PNC Bank (which hired Handmade Gardens to create one the very best gardens in the show) and Subaru. . .while I'm not wild about a car sitting on the show floor, at least it is parked on cobbles next to a garden! Pet Peeve: this Subaru garden is always quite lovely, BUT THE PLANTS ARE NEVER LABELED, and of course the "car" people staffing the exhibit are clueless as to anything around them in the garden. . .actually, my friend and I had fun with them this year, teaching them the names of all "their" plants ! Heaven forfend! I seem to have rattled on here ad nauseum. . .my apologies, but flower shows are one my passions. Anyone want to join me at the show out in Cincinatti this year? Carl