I was in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania last weekend and had the opportunity to go to the Phipps Conservatory. The conservatory is somewhat of a t-shaped, symmetrical design and houses a number of rooms each devoted to a type of environment (Desert Room) or type of plant (Orchid Room, Fern Room, etc). Additionally, there are some outdoor garden areas. There wasn't much historical information in the Visitor's Guide, but the ultimate resource, Wikipedia, tells me that the conservatory was built in 1893 to provide the citizens of Pittsburgh with a scientific resource for viewing different types of plants from around the world. During the flower show, they mix-in spring flowering bulbs (primarily) and some blooming annuals and perennials between their permanent plant exhibit rooms. I've attached some pictures of the containers that I liked below.
The first picture below is actually a "series of containers." They had taken a number of white Phalaenopsis (moth orchids) in pots and stacked them up on a wall with what I thought was maidenhair fern (however, I know very little about ferns and the plants were not labeled). The display was very effective. The second container was an urn with two bulbs (daffodils and hyacinth) along with a few blue pansies and ivy. The third container holds white tulips, fiber optic grass, and columbine. The fourth container is red tulips and ivy in a black urn. And, the final container also had red tulips and two plants that I did know the identities of (the trailing plant looked like some type of fern). All the containers (except the wall of orchids) made use of bulbs.
Now that a lot of the big box stores, garden centers, and grocery stores sell relatively inexpensive bulbs in pots, I thought it would be relatively easy to try to recreate one of these.
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