It’s been just 11 years since the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden opened to the public. Now, they’ll be participating in one of the most prestigious flower shows in the nation in Philadelphia.
Pittsburgh Botanic Garden Makes Its Philadelphia Flower Show Debut
The Pittsburgh Botanic Garden will participate in next year’s PHS Philadelphia Flower Show. The prestigious, nearly 200-year-old event — said to be both the oldest and the largest flower show in the world — will welcome just five gardens from Pennsylvania in 2027. That means the still-new Pittsburgh Botanic Garden will join institutions with more than a century of experience, such as Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens and The Arboretum at Penn State.
“We’re just incredibly proud and excited,” says Abigayle Tobia, Pittsburgh Botanic Garden’s executive director, who says the garden’s swift ascent is a testament to “the faith and support of our core community.”
The Philadelphia Flower Show, which hosts garden displays, floral-arranging competitions and plants from around the world, is “one of the premiere landscaping, horticulture, floriculture — even design and fashion shows for the nation,” Tobia says. For the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden, inclusion not only represents a new audience but affirms the success and program of a decade of transformation.
“We really had to do a lot of discovery about what it meant to be the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden. We’re not a park; we have cultivated gardens. We have research going on. We tell the story of the transformation of the land here.”
Showcasing the Garden’s History
In partnership with landscape design architect Rob Thompson, the Garden will present a display that depicts the history of the Garden’s land — beginning with a coal cart, to represent the site’s mining history, and flowing into native trees and a “celebration garden” centered around native plants, including an intricate diagram of the dogwood flower. A massive bamboo sculpture of a Great Blue Heron, made by avian-focused artists The Myth Makers, will soar above the display. (The Pittsburgh Botanic Garden is planning a large installation featuring work by The Myth Makers for 2027.)
The challenge, as Tobia puts it: “How can we take 100 years of history of land and an eco-region and condense it into 860 square feet?”
The answer to that question will be unveiled from March 12-21 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center — with a planned assist from students at the Bidwell Training Center. “We can tie this into workforce development, bring this crew in training out to Philadelphia … give those folks a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for workforce development, training and also just a fantastic experience.”
In the meantime, the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden is open six days a week throughout the year — and the whimsical Scraposaurs exhibition is on display through October.
“Pittsburgh deserves to be on the map as a premiere recreation destination,” Tobia says, “and the Botanic Garden is a big part of that.”
Learn more about how you can help the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden thrive.
About the Author
Sean Collier is the editor-in-chief of Shady Ave and the arts and culture editor of TABLE Magazine. Before joining the TABLE Media team, he spent nearly 15 years as a writer, editor and columnist at Pittsburgh Magazine. As the in-house film critic for the top-rated WDVE Morning Show since 2009, he’s been Pittsburgh’s most widely heard voice on movies for nearly two decades. A Pittsburgh native, Sean has since 2020 appeared weekly on KDKA-TV’s popular Pittsburgh Today Live talk show. He’s the co-founder of Vigilance Theater Group and an active stand-up comedian and event host. He can be found on Instagram and Twitter at @seancollierpgh.
Story by Sean Collier
Photo Courtesy of Pittsburgh Botanic Garden
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