Earlier this year, I stopped by the Macy’s Flower Show in New York. For the first time, the show was taking place outdoors in a show tent at 34th and Broadway, so instead of pushing through crowds inside the store, it was a leisurely amble through “Brasil: Gardens in Paradise”. The Chelsea Flower Show is my benchmark for what a flower show looks like, but that has over 500 exhibitions and I couldn’t imagine a flower show of that scale in Manhattan. As it turns out; the Macy’s Flower Show is more like a single exhibit that you would see as part of a larger scale flower show, but it was lovely nonetheless.
The shop windows gave a tantalizing glimpse of what lay ahead.
Toucans were the order of the day, with paper toucans peering out of shop windows, and a giant toucan made out of dried Brazilian button flowers and black magnolia leaves sitting proudly in the show tent.
Some of the highlights were a rope bridge leading to a waterfall, a monkey made of leaves, an Amazon garden and my favourite, a Rio rooftop.
There were all kinds of exotic flowers cascading down walls, peeping out from around corners and nestled in dense foliage.
One of the more surprising things was that not all of the flowers were in pristine condition; some with chunks missing from their petals or with visible scars, but as I understand it, this was done on purpose to evoke a true-to-life vision of Gardens in Paradise. I loved it, because their imperfections did not diminish their glory in the slightest. If anything, they looked even more beautiful.
So this week’s travel theme should be a fairly easy, and hopefully joyful one. I can’t wait to see what flowers you have in your part of the world. If you’d like to join in, create your own post, title it “Travel theme: Flowers” and put a link to this page in your post so others can find it. Don’t forget to check back in next Friday for a new travel theme.
Bring on the flowers!
xxx Ailsa
Where's my backpack? 