Dozens of landscapers and florists will show their visions of plants and gardens of the future when the 196th Philadelphia Flower Show opens this Saturday, March 1, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, 12th and Arch streets, Philadelphia.
From creative arrangements of cut-flower bouquets to futuristic, basketball-court-sized displays of blooming trees and water features, spring’s colors and scents will fill 10 acres of the Convention Center for nine days from March 1-9.
The show, produced by the Philadelphia-based Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, is America’s biggest and the world’s longest-running indoor flower show.
This year’s theme is “Gardens of Tomorrow,” a topic that the show’s creative director, Seth Pearsoll, calls a “celebration of innovation, resilience, and creativity in gardening.”
He says the 2025 displays are aimed at “telling the story of how gardening and horticulture will evolve in ways we’ve yet to dream,” plus highlighting how the simple act of planting itself “is a small gesture that promotes a brighter future.”
Besides the elaborate and sometimes over-the-top displays that are a hallmark of the Philadelphia Flower Show, the 2025 show will again feature a huge amateur plant competition, a marketplace of some 200 garden-related vendors, assorted hands-on activities, and a variety of educational talks and exhibits.
Adult weekday tickets are $39.99 ($49.99 on Friday and weekends) and are available online or at the show entrance. Discounts are offered for students aged 18-24 ($25 weekdays, $30 Friday/weekends) and children ages 5-17 ($20 weekdays, $25 Friday/weekends). Children aged 4 and under are free.
Tickets are $10 off for admission after 4 p.m.
New for 2025 is a Floral Fanatic Pass that’s good for daily admissions all week. That cost is $90.
Thinking of going? Here’s a guide to make the most of the 2025 Philadelphia Flower Show, along with tips on how to navigate it:
The Philadelphia Flower Show has been taking place since 1829. This photo is a shot from one of the landscape displays in 1934.Pennsylvania Horticultural Society
What’s the big deal?
Begun in 1829, the Philadelphia Flower Show has grown into the granddaddy of all flower shows, attracting some 250,000 visitors from around the world during its annual late-winter run.
The show has twice won the International Festivals and Events Association’s award for best event worldwide, topping such other iconic events as the Kentucky Derby Festival, Pasadena’s Tournament of Roses Parade, and the Indianapolis 500 Festival.
Besides being the main fundraiser for PHS, the flower show pumps an estimated $60-$65 million into the Philadelphia economy via hotel stays, restaurant meals, parking fees, and such.
PHS is a nonprofit organization that runs plant-related programs to feed and green the Philadelphia region.
A lighted tunnel and flowering cherry trees will guide visitors into the 2025 flower show.Pennsylvania Horticultural Society
The main entrance
The highlight of most shows is the Entrance Garden – the first view visitors see once inside the show doors.
This year’s Entrance Garden – designed by PHS staff – is titled “Futura Florentia.”
Visitors will enter it through a custom-lighted tunnel and a canopy of 21 white-blooming Okame cherry trees.
On one side, a four-sided, stream-filled water feature will reflect light, and on the other side, a rain bar will drop water to create a calming “soundscape.”
Blooming perennial flowers will surround both water-focused areas.
- See the 2024 entrance garden and other highlights from the 2024 show
This rendering shows the concept of the Treeline Designz display garden.Pennsylvania Horticultural Society
The display gardens
The Entrance Garden will lead visitors into a winding promenade through dozens of other large landscape displays built by landscapers, florists, designers, and horticulture students. These are some of the show’s main draws and most “wow” sights.
Several designers are new to the show this year. They include:
- OLIN, a Philadelphia and Los Angeles landscape architecture and urban design firm, is pairing with Remark Glass to create a garden named, “Don’t Call It Dirt, Don’t Call It Trash.” The installation shows how repurposed items (glass jars, bottles, woody debris, food waste, etc.) can be used to create an environmentally sound landscape of the future.
- Japanese garden designer Kazuyuki Ishihara will collaborate with Iftikhar Ahmed of the Portland, Ore.-based Treeline Designz on a novel two-tiered “Tomorrow’s Eden” garden, featuring lush, futuristic gardens that have overcome today’s threats of pollution, climate change, and drought.
- New York’s Simply Nia Design will use carnations as the highlight in a floral exhibit inspired by faith, perseverance, and collective goodness.
- Philadelphia’s Bloom Bold and Co. will create a floral exhibit that explores time through the medium of a deconstructed clock.
- And floral designers Lily Beelen, Mike Boerma, Berit Laursen, and Ahti Lyra are four newcomers who will face off in a “Future Flowers” display challenge.
Lots of “regulars” are also returning to build gardens and exhibits at the 2025 show. Among them:
- Jennifer Designs is building a “Welcoming Wildlife Home” exhibit featuring a home that’s been overtaken by floral wild creatures.
- Robertson’s Flowers is building a display with a centerpiece majestic tree whose roots stretch out to represent how the world’s communities are interconnected.
- New Jersey designer Susan Cohan returns with “Field of Vision 25/50,” a futuristic garden set in a reimagined post-industrial space that uses recycled urban materials, including a repurposed water tower.
- And Apiary Studios, the show’s 2024 “Best in Show” landscape winner, returns with an exhibit that highlights the nostalgia of childhood play as well as the journey through life’s stages.
Student-built displays will include: Lankenau High School’s green classroom of tomorrow; Mercer County Community College’s urban green infrastructure; The Lakeside School’s futuristic biodome with hydroponics, tropical plants, and microgreens; Delaware Valley University’s “Into the Clouds” look at a garden landscape in the year 2150; and the University of Delaware’s “Lab to Landscape” that explores advancements in plant breeding and soil science.
Other returnees include Mark Cook Landscape, the American Institute of Floral Designers, Schaffer Designs, Irwin Landscaping, Waldor Orchids, Laurel-Brook Gardens, Jacques Amand Bulbs, the Men’s Garden Club of Philadelphia, and a variety of plant societies.
The Hamilton Horticourt is a show within the show that’s the site of a huge amateur plant-growing competition.George Weigel
The Hamilton Horticourt
Beyond the gardens and floral displays, another main attraction is this show within the show. The Hamilton Horticourt features an amateur growing competition in which home gardeners and plant geeks vie for ribbons in hundreds of judged plant categories.
The eclectic collection of specimen plants (orchids, succulents, begonias, forced bulbs, etc.) are displayed in a dedicated space with soft lighting.
Tu Bloom again will lead a series of “potting parties” at the 2025 show.Pennsylvania Horticultural Society/Raw But Meaningful LLC
Elsewhere on the show floor
The back of the show is devoted to displays and competitions in various garden-art categories, such as miniatures, pressed flowers, small-space designs, botanical illustrations, and plant photography.
A returning feature that’s been popular the past two years is the antique garden-tool collection of David Rubin.
Also back is a large-screen multimedia exhibit by PLANTPOP, this year showing time-lapse photography of blooms unfolding inside the 22-foot-tall Terra Ekodome.
Rounding out the show floor will be: the PHS Store (where visitors can buy show-themed T-shirts, mugs, and totes); a Potting Party station (where visitors can sign up in advance to put together their own $20 flower pots under the guidance of Grammy Awards florist Tu Bloom); a Bloom Bar (where floral crowns can be bought for $32); the PHS Members Lounge (where PHS members can sit and relax with a beverage), and displays and gardens built by sponsors such as Bartlett Tree Experts and the W. Atlee Burpee seed company.
Some 200 vendors will have booths that make up a sort of gardener’s shopping mall.George Weigel
Shop till you wilt
The third main arm is the Flower Show Marketplace of some 200 vendors who man assorted booths. This gardener’s mall takes up about a third of the 10-acre show.
In row after row, the vendors offer all things garden-related … flowers, seeds, bulbs, books, planters, botanical art, tools, yard ornaments, gardener apparel, you name it.
Daily “Know to Grow” talks are scheduled just outside the main show floor.George Weigel
Down the hall
Once you venture off the show floor, the Convention Center has a long, carpeted concourse that leads to Bloom City – yet another part of the show in the center’s Grand Hall.
The head of the concourse is a room where daily “Know to Grow” talks take place at no extra charge. Four talks are scheduled most days.
Talk topics include gardening in the future, plant foraging, bee habitats, growing hydrangeas, wildflower plantings, houseplants, edibles, and cut flowers.
The concourse also will have vendor stands (primarily travel companies) and a coat check.
Another whole section of the show features an Artisans Row where visitors can make their own flower bouquets.Pennsylvania Horticultural Society/Raw But Meaningful LLC
Bloom City
At the end of the concourse is this “activity hub” with a variety of elements, such as:
- A Makers Market of 33 local artisans selling their handmade products. These booths offer wares such as hand-painted artwork, print fabrics, clothing, jewelry, essential oils, embroidered artwork and more.
- Artisan Row. Eight artisans show visitors here how to make their own garden-y crafts that the visitors then take home. This year’s expanded lineup of 16 items includes floral crowns, candles, glass diffusers, succulent terrariums and hanging globes, painted vases, floral handbags, botanical jewelry, and DIY flower bouquets. Costs range from $16 to $35 (online in advance or on site).
- Butterflies Live! This enclosed area offers an up-close-and-personal look at hundreds of live butterflies flitting around plants. Tickets are $5, either online in advance or at the exhibit.
- Kids Cocoon is a play area for the kids, featuring plant activities such as planting seedlings, crafts, building with LEGO bricks, and plant-related stories.
Special events and tours
Opening Sunday (March 2) is Family Frolic day, a day dedicated to kids and filled with such activities as face-painting, giveaways, mascot visits, and more from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
On March 7, the new Blossom and Breathe day debuts. It features beauty, skin-care, and wellness vendors and yoga classes with Philadelphia Eagles cheerleader Arielle Hunt. Event hours are 5 to 8 p.m. (The classes cost extra.)
Saturday, March 8, is Flowers After Hours, the annual after-hours, over-age-21 dance party, this year featuring an “Out of This World” theme that blends the nostalgia of the ‘80s and ‘90s with futuristic, space-age aesthetics. Hours are 8:30 to 11:30 p.m., and advance tickets are $75.
For early-risers who want to beat the crowds, the show is again offering two-hour guided Early Morning Tours each day before the show opens. For $125, you’ll get in before the doors open to the public from 8 to 10 a.m. and then have the remainder of the day on your own at the show.
A nearby venue that offers a range of food options is the Reading Terminal Market.George Weigel
Refueling yourself
Other than water bottles that can be filled at stations throughout the show, the show doesn’t allow outside food and drinks.
One food option is the lineup of overpriced soft pretzels, ice cream, pastries, wraps, and such at stands around the show floor and in Bloom City.
For a sit-down meal, the convention center has a food court one level up from the show floor.
Better food is across the street at the sprawling, foodie heaven known as Reading Terminal Market, although it’s almost always wall-to-wall people during show week.
If you don’t mind a short walk, get your hand stamped and leave the show for one of many nearby Philly restaurants, including dozens around the corner in Chinatown alone.
Ticket prices are the same online in advance as walk-up purchases at the box office.
Some people become PHS members to get discounted or free show tickets for their memberships. Those offers range from as little as $50 (which gets you the PHS GROW magazine, members-only programs, and two discounted show tickets) to $1,827 and up (which lands you 10 free show tickets in addition to a host of perks).
Show dates and times
This year’s show dates are March 1-9. Hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. from March 1 through March 8, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on closing day, March 9.
A members-only preview day is Feb. 28 from noon to 4 p.m.
Getting there
Compete with commuters if you go by train. Amtrak will take you from Harrisburg to Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station, then you’ll have to take a cab to the Convention Center or use your Amtrak ticket to hop on a SEPTA regional train, heading eastbound to the Jefferson Station (the second stop from 30th Street).
Be prepared for possible traffic backups and tolls if you drive the turnpike and Schuylkill Expressway. Allow at least two hours of drive time.
The flower show website features several pages that go into detail about how to get to the show, where to park, and how to get into the show through one of the three entrances.
The Pennsylvania Convention Center website also is filled with more details on getting to the venue, including maps, directions, and parking information.
Expect to pay $18 to $24 to park.
Lots and lots of people go by tour buses, which include show tickets and drop-offs at the show door. Multiple tour operators and clubs offer these, but reservations are needed in advance.
Pick your time wisely
The show’s chief downside is packed crowds, especially if you go at peak time, such as Sunday afternoon or all day Saturdays.
First thing Sunday morning isn’t bad, and crowds thin most days after about 4 p.m., when tour buses start leaving and locals leave for dinner.
Monday is usually the busiest weekday, although crowds can vary depending on weather. The absolute best day to go crowd-wise is any day when snow is forecast, which scares away the masses.
Those early-morning guided tours are another way to beat the crowds if you’re willing to spring for a $125 admission.
