What's in store at flower show

By CONNIE NELSON, Home+Garden Editor

Last update: March 18, 2008 - 5:33 PM

Women's shoes is Mexico. Head down the cosmetics aisle and you're in Central America. And handbags? That's Brazil.

Floranova, this year's Macy's-Bachman's flower show, cuts a wide swath through the downtown department store and the Southern Hemisphere, drawing energy and inspiration from all things Latin.

Tucked in among the store's regular merchandise are whimsical, larger-than-life sculptures that set the stage for islands of plants in a tropical punch of colors.

"We weren't working with a color theme," said Dale Bachman, president of Bachman's. "We were working with a colorful theme: bright, bold and big."

Although the show highlights exotics -- massive bromeliads, stark coral trees, gorgeous orchids -- closer-to-home plants have a place, too. There are mass plantings of azaleas, rhododendrons, daffodils and hyacinths, for that flower show fragrance.

Rose fans should check out the Ecuadorean roses on 42-inch stems as well as the Polar Joy hardy tree rose (perched atop the Clarins counter). Curiosity-seekers can search for one of the meat-eating pitcher plants (hint: look high and low). And chocoholics won't want to miss the chocolate tree with its promising seed pods (outside the Louis Vuitton boutique).

You can take in the show on your way to grab lunch or take a tour led by Hennepin County master gardeners (11 a.m., 1 and 2 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays). Master gardeners also will staff a plant information booth to answer general gardening questions from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays.

This must mean that spring is coming.

Connie Nelson • 612-673-7087