Winner, BEST IN SHOW

2007 “Plant-o-saurus”— featured a prehistoric garden with smoky bog and original large-scale dinosaur models from the movie Jurassic Park.

The following Philadelphia Flower Show exhibits, including six BEST IN SHOWS were designed by Michael Petrie when he was Vice President (starting 2001), Philadelphia Flower Show designer and retail store manager for the former J. Franklin Styer Nurseries in Concordville, PA, where he worked prior to starting HANDMADE GARDENS in 2008.

2006 “Snowfall” — a re-creation of a haunting winter-wood landscape complete with falling snow.

Snowfall transported Philadelphia Flower Show goers to an early spring garden covered by a late snow. The stroll-through exhibit was reminiscent of a winter white landscape, brought to life through reflecting, dynamic light effects and intermittently falling snow. To achieve this sensation, over 3,000 plants and trees were flocked with a white textured material simulating snow. A snow machine periodically made “snow” and a sophisticated lighting system recreated winter lighting effects.

As in previous years, the goal of designer Michael Petrie was to evoke an emotional response in show visitors. “When was the last time you walked through your garden in winter?” he asks. “How did it feel?”

Snowfall was another crowd pleaser and inspired countless visitors to appreciate their own winter landscape in a completely new way.

Winner, BEST IN SHOW                            Early rendering of PussyWillow exhibit drawn by Michael Petrie

2005 “PussyWillow”

2004 Carnival

2003 Squash Blocks — an edgy garden offset with bales of compacted recycled paper and metal.

2001 Plantman

Winner, BEST IN SHOW

2000 Big Time

An eclectic collection of timepieces, including a startlingly oversized pocket watch marked this
pleasure garden, a Best in Show, Landscape, winner. This exhibit will dramatically demonstrate how time and garden boundaries are infinite. “We want visitors to our exhibit to look at it and suspend their beliefs in traditional gardening. We want them to see how there really are no boundaries to their property,” said Michael Petrie, an award-winning flower show designer. The pocket watch, which appears to have dropped from the sky, a reflecting pool, fountains, and sculptural steel trees with glass flowers all lead the visitor through time and into boundless space.

Winner, BEST IN SHOW

1999 Picture This — a startlingly oversized framed Impressionist painting on scrim magically disappears via special rotating lighting, revealing a long view of a dramatic rose garden.

1998 The Tooleries — A whirlwind of brightly-painted rakes and shovels appear to dance in a long reflecting  pool.

Winner, BEST IN SHOW (Perfect score)

1997 Tyres by Styer’s

Arguably one of the most talked-about exhibits at the Philadelphia Flower Show, this spectacular garden featured two tractor-trailer loads of automobile and other rubber–tires ranging in sizes from 1/4 inch to 8 feet—tires bundled, chewed, sliced, diced, piled, painted, and split in half and arranged as sculpture, all showcasing a dramatic array of plants including four exciting new cultivars.

1995 Potbound

This revolutionary exhibit featured thousands of toppling clay pots from one-inch in diameter to 6-feet across in a startling display of gardening exuberance: Broken pots, pieces of pots, pots as small as your thumbnail and pots big enough to drive a car into, containing flowers and plants and even trees. Water flowed from pot to pot and from pots to pools, too. Designer Michael Petrie described the pot garden as the “biggest pile of pots anyone will ever see.” He adds that the idea “just came right out of my head. It’s not a real garden setting, it is just something to capture the imagination.”

The Potbound exhibit along with an overview of Michael Petrie’s work at the Flower Show appears in the book The Philadelphia Flower Show: Celebrating 175 Years by Adam Levine & Ray Rogers, pages 195 and 196.

——————————————————————————————————————————————

——————————————————————————————————————————————

——————————————————————————————————————————————

——————————————————————————————————————————————

——————————————————————————————————————————————

——————————————————————————————————————————————

——————————————————————————————————————————————

——————————————————————————————————————————————

——————————————————————————————————————————————

——————————————————————————————————————————————

——————————————————————————————————————————————

Early concept sketch (right) of “The Tooleries” and finished drawing by Michael Petrie.