Pennsylvania Convention Center bursts with colorful flowers as Philadelphia Flower Show kicks off

the 2024 Philadelphia Flower Show gets underway this weekend. It's a favorite for so many people. This year's theme is called United by Flowers. CBS News Philadelphia's Dan Caraballo, the lucky one to give us a preview from the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Each time we come to you, Jan, you have another stunning display behind you. Janelle and Jim. Good morning. I think it's in my contract that I must cover the Philadelphia Flower Show. I've been here so many years. It has been so beautiful to see year after year. Stunning giant creations. Here to talk about it is Sin Gogolak with Philadelphia Flower Show. Another great display this year. The first thing people are going to see is what's behind us. It's the entrance garden. Tell us what went into making this spectacular piece. Sure. So this entrance garden has been in the works for several, several months with our team of talented designers behind you. You see 75,000 fresh cut florals, over 8000 gallons of water for that water feature. Number 14,000 tulips are planted. That's just one small part. For the first time ever, we've taken one of our competition artists out of competition to partner with us to create this other expanded entrance garden that you see right behind you as well. It's a beautiful canopy of flowers that you walk into to start seeing the other display. And the smell is amazing, Jan. We hope everyone comes through and sees it and experiences it themselves. Absolutely. This is really giving us a taste of spring. Let's talk now about the theme United by Flowers. It's easy to see, but what's behind the meaning? Sure. United by Flowers is a celebration of all the ways that gardening and flowers influence our life in those big moments and those small moments from the sharing of a bouquet over dinner to your wedding florals. Every particular memorable moment in your life involves flowers or gardening in some way. And this is a celebration of that community and that love and the memories we create together around flowers. We have some video running on our screen as well, showing some different pieces. These are from different florists and different organizations who are building these competitive pieces. And we see a lot of tablescapes, a lot of trips, and it's all about community. Correct. So we open up that theme for interpretation with our team of exhibitors, right? We tell them, say, Hey, the theme is United by Flowers. What do you foresee? What does this mean to you? So what we're seeing today in this show is that a lot of people have felt like that community bonding over the shared memory making of food and gathering. America is a country united by flowers. Every state has its own particular flowers. There's beautiful parks and things to see all across the country. And that's what that beautiful country USA map with the car kind of going into it. It's a display of people visit parks and they see flowers and that's their interpretation. Exactly. And there's so much to see here, right? We kind of celebrate all the ways that we come together. We have the black girl florists who are a community of florists from all over America. They came together to create this beautiful display celebrating a hair salon. So they have this beautiful hair salon set up with flowers coming out of mannequins. I mean, it really is a way that you can show how people come together. Thank you so much. And there is not only the exhibitors to see, but there are other spaces. We have a marketplace. We have a kind of maker space where you can get your hands on the flowers and make something. And that is our tease because that's what we'll be doing coming up in our next hour. Jim and you know, back into you. It's like a wonderland of flowers there. Yeah, I can't wait to see what you bring to us next. Thanks so much. Philadelphia flower show starts tomorrow and runs until March 10th. You know, in our last hour and a half, we've been showing the beautiful, massive displays that are on display here at the Philadelphia flower show this year. Well, now that you're inspired, you can come over and make a little something, take it home with you. This is Bloom City. Rebecca Shukart here to describe what this area is all about. It really is nice because you could get inspired and then put that creativity to you. So what do we have going on? Exactly. So we are an artist in row right now. And this is a really great place where you can make something as unique as you and take it home with you. So you have a great memory of the flower show. So we have a variety of things, botanical jewelry, make a flower crown, make a floral handbag. And here we have a dried floral arrangement in the beautiful container. So what do we do here? We we get our bud vase and we get going. Exactly. So you take your shares, you can take a pair right there and you kind of trim it to the length that you want. And then you can just start kind of going at it, putting it in any way that you want. Really, there's no like rhyme or reason. We do have professionals here that can kind of help you along the way. I think I need a little bit of guidance. Although I do love arranging, it's so difficult because it is an art form. It is an art form. But you know, once you get into it, you can really make it your own and have fun with it. And yeah, like I said, we have professionals here that can kind of help you along the way and have fun. And we have behind us, make your own terrarium as well. That's right. All of these folks that we have here in artisan row are local to philadelphia. So it's a great opportunity for them to be a part of the show and to show off what they do. And across the way we have live butterflies, we have a space for kids. That's right. Really, um, bloom city is an activations hub. There's things to do. There's things to learn. There's things to shop. We have a beautiful maker's market. We have the butterflies live, great for Children and then kids cocoon where we have live programming pretty much all day long. Yeah, thanks so much, Rebecca. Appreciate it. So if you need a little bit of break from the displays, come and get your hands, you know, put them to good use out here. Jim and Janelle back into you things to do, things to learn and things to shop. Great advice. Thank you, Jan. Appreciate it.