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March 31, 2005
Macy's Flower Show
To avoid stewing in frustrated indecision about whether to buy or rent, I joined elder members of distinguished suburban garden clubs everywhere and took a tour of the Macy's Flower Show this evening. I had never been before, and don't know a tulip from a rhododendron, but it seemed like enough of a New York institution to merit a visit. Plus, I'm up for anything free these days, what with the unmentionable bank-account-freezing crisis at hand.
There was something very retro 50s about it. I can picture well-dressed women with matching handbags strolling around, naming flowers and discussing gardening. It's very proper to know all about plants and how and when they grow -- probably something that used to be taught in finishing school. And the Flower Show seems a bit quaint, like that annual event in Central Park that all the New York socialites go to in fancy hats.
On the other hand, the flowers are gorgeous. Plus, the scope of the show is impressive. An eye-catching fish-shaped flower sculpture is suspended over a pond at the Broadway entrance. On closer inspection, you find that there are large, active, spotted orange fish in the pond (these turned out to be Japanese koi). There are beautiful flowers everywhere -- some familiar and some not. I loved a large, deep red flower with a thick stalk (no idea what the name is), and the orchid section was full of Orchid Thief-worthy samples. Many of the orchids seemed almost unnatural in their complexity, with unique shapes and dramatically contrasting colors (like bright purple and white, or red veins of a yellow background). Some remind me of hummingbirds, or, as The Orchid Thief suggests, of large insects. Amazing feats of indoor gardening were achieved -- the sunglasses area was full of mean-looking cacti, grapefruit and seville orange trees with nearly-ripe fruit were near the stairs, and healthy-looking plants in bloom were everywhere. The flower displays in the windows are also very colorful and bright -- the theme is "the muppets do the Wizard of Oz," which is amusing.
I was glad to learn that the flowers aren't all cut and transported, but are still firmly planted in soil. In the 40s, 50s, and 60s, fresh flowers were brought in each day but that proved to be too costly. Now, the show has beds of various kinds of flowers, bushes, and small trees, along with a few bouquets in the aisles. The tour was full of references to what a plant was doing yesterday or last week.
The show is almost entirely on the ground floor and is split up into different "gardens" -- there's a Spring garden, a Meditteranean Garden, a Royal Garden, a Tropical Garden, etc. Since I'm flower-illiterate I wandered around thinking dull thoughts like, "Pretty flowers. Nice topiary," so the free tour (which should be called "Flowers for Idiots Who Don't Appreciate Them") was really helpful. I learned that the big green thing in our apartment is called a ficus, and you can also change the color of hydrangea leaves by altering the makeup of the soil. Just having different flowers named and pointed out with a laser-pointed helped me appreciate the variety and scale of the show.
Overall, there were just flowers EVERYWHERE, which helps to drive home the impression that it is spring (also allergy season). It was somewhat overwhelming. Especially in a place I associate with sucking all of the moisture out of your body and frustrating shopping attempts. The pairing of Gucci and Prada "spring collection" bags and the actual, natural colors that inspire their design is probably boosting sales. The high concentration of plants felt kind of luxurious and expensive. Like the Tuileries had been transplanted to Bryant Park for fashion week or something. All of those living plants completely transformed the dry department store space.
Posted by csageday at March 31, 2005 01:03 AM