• About MICHAEL PETRIE

About MICHAEL PETRIE Click here to read about SUE PHILLIPS, PCH

Among gardening circles in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, area where he makes his home, Michael Petrie is known as a non-traditional gardener, a "garden artist" and a trendsetter. As an award-winning horticulturist and designer for the Philadelphia Flower Show, the largest indoor flower show in the world, Petrie has earned recognition and praise for his wildly beautiful, unconventional, even "off-the-wall" exhibits. An artist by trade and inclination, Petrie attended the Philadelphia College of Art and The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts where he studied both painting and printmaking.

Michael Petrie's work has received national and regional attention in media including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Garden Design and Philadelphia Magazine. His home garden was spotlighted on TV's Good Morning America. Petrie is profiled in the book The Philadelphia Flower Show: Celebrating 175 Years (2003: Chanticleer Press) by Raymond Rogers and Adam Levine.

Before launching Handmade Gardens in 2008, Petrie was the vice-president and retail store manager, for more than 20 years, of J. Franklin Styer Nurseries in Concordville, PA. While there, his Philadelphia Flower Show designs for Styer's won the prestigious "Best in Show/ Landscape" category for six out of eleven straight years. In 2009, after a one-year absence, Petrie returned to the Philadelphia Flower Show with his first exhibit for HANDMADE GARDENS, “The Painted Tree,” which won three major awards. READ MORE

(l) View of the 1998 Philadelphia Flower Show Exhibit “The Tooleries,” a whirlwind of brightly colored rakes and shovels reflected in a contemplative pool. Designed by Michael Petrie. (r) Another view of the Petrie’s 1999 “Best-in-Show “ Philadelphia Flower Show exhibit, “Picture This.”

Petrie designed and supervised installation of the Philadelphia Flower Show central feature for Pennsylvania Horticultural Society in 2007, and for The Men's Garden Club of Philadelphia from 1987 to the present. He has designed and built exhibits for major institutions including the Philadelphia Zoo; Winterthur Museum and Gardens; Burpee Seed Co.; Lamsback Floral Decorators; and The Brandywine River Museum. He conceived of the concept and installed the eye-catching "Holiday Ball" lighting displays in both Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia and Brinton Lake Shopping Center in Concordville, PA.

Petrie is a public speaker on a variety of garden topics. He is a member of The Garden Writers of America, and a founding member of The Men's Garden Club of Philadelphia.

Michael Petrie is married to freelance writer and children's book author Kathye Fetsko Petrie, founder/editor of the online publication Local LIT. They have three sons.

In addition to his family and gardening, Petrie's interests include attending and buying at auctions; designing and making found-object sculpture and birdhouses; painting; drawing; photography; fly-fishing; welding -- and collecting hose nozzles.

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Michael Petrie in front of “Picture This,” his Best-in-Show award-winning Philadelphia Flower Show exhibit for 1999. This exhibit featured a startlingly-oversized, framed Impressionist painting on scrim that magically disappeared via special rotating lighting, revealing a dramatic rose garden. It is often cited as Petrie’s most beautiful design ever.

“Big Time,” another Philadelphia Flower Show exhibit designed by

Michael Petrie, featured an eclectic collection of super-sized timepieces set, like crashed spaceships in a futuristic garden. It was the Best-in-Show winner for the year 2000.