Accustomed as we are for the past 48 years to trudge through snow and slush to see Macy's Flower Show, you might think that being able to attend this year's event in shorts and sandals will diminish some of its delight.
Nope.
The weather may be warm, but lawns look dull and most flower beds remain comatose. A passing shower may release a wonderfully earthy smell, but dirt has nothing on catching a whiff of star jasmine as you enter "Brasil," this year's horticultural destination, courtesy of Bachman's. The show, with the native Portuguese spelling, opens Sunday and runs through April 7 during regular store hours.
While the show always serves as both a psychic retreat and a seasonal preview, this year's relatively tropical temps have proven more of a challenge than an ally, according to Dale Bachman, the garden center's CEO.
"Things are just moving in the greenhouses," he said, with no outside chill to temper plant growth. Despite their natural habitat of the Amazonian rainforest, the vast majority of the plants have been nurtured here. "It's Brazil by way of Lakeville," Bachman said of the company's growing range south of the Twin Cities, although a few species have been brought in from the coasts, such as a cherry tree from Oregon.
As hot as our summers get, though, we still have winters, so this year's show may not be as "transplantable" as past displays, he said. "It's a little more limited as to the plant palette you can use. But it's still a place to get ideas, such as the wall-mounted gardens and various water features."
This year's show feels intimate and overgrown, with a meandering path through the various "rooms" reflecting a barrio, a colonial-era patio, a rainforest and modern Brasilia. Inspiration was drawn from the late Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx, known for how he brought nature into his urban designs.
Water flows down long gutters of halved bamboo, creating a pattern of waterfalls. Almost 120 varieties of plants include shiny-leafed gardenias, coffee trees, various orchids -- the cattleya orchid is Brazil's national flower -- tree ferns, mango trees, birds of paradise, even carnivorous pitcher plants. (Parent alert: Venus flytraps, those botanical devourers of flies and spiders, will be for sale in the adjoining market. You know the kids will want one.)
