Families enjoy tradition of Philadelphia Flower Show

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — Saturday marked the start of the 2024 PHS Philadelphia Flower Show, an event that is expected to draw tens of thousands of people to the Pennsylvania Convention Center over the next eight days.

“Hi, ladies! This is a build-your-own bouquet bar!” said Rosemary Kelly, greeting guests to her daughter’s booth.

“It’s such a gift,” Kelly said of working with her daughter, Maeve.

The two used to come to the show all the time when Maeve was little. Now, life has come full circle for the owner of The Flower Mama.

“Guests can come and they can choose flowers and they actually build their bouquet off of the truck and I’m just here to provide guidance,” Maeve Gavin explained.

PHS Flower Show home page | Buy Tickets to the the show | Downloadable show map

This has the potential to be her busiest week in business ever, as the show has a massive audience.

“The theme is United by Flowers, which is basically a way to talk about the shared passion of gardens and flowers. Everybody comes together once a year, they find their way into gardening or plants or flowers, and here’s where they all come together and unite,” said Seth Pearsoll, the vice president of the show, where flower and gardening lovers from across the country are uniting by massive displays.

“There’s over 200 cubic yards of mulch and infill, there’s over 8,500 gallons of water,” Pearsoll said of the entrance garden, where Mich Kahlon, her sisters, and her niece got together to begin their tour.

“It’s a day to be together and see all the beautiful flowers,” said Kahlon, who has been coming with her family to the flower show for 13 years. It’s a day they’ve come to cherish.

“More of a tradition than anything. This was the last thing we did before they shut the city down for COVID in 2020,” she said.

As the show hopes to bloom to its pre-pandemic strength, families, like Maeve and her mom, are watching the traditions they planted long ago blossom into something new and beautiful.

“I named the truck Rosebud after her,” Gavin said of naming her bouquet truck in honor of her mom. “Her name is Rosemary and to be able to be here building bouquets with my mom is such an honor.”

If you missed the first day or even the first weekend of the show, don’t worry there’s still plenty of time to see the “United by Flowers.” The show runs until March 10.