Williamson Students Prepare for Upcoming Exhibit at The Philadelphia Flower Show  

Williamson’s exhibit in the upcoming Philadelphia Flower Show, “Hortus Conclusus (A Garden Enclosed: Medieval Cloister Garden),” will depict the gardens found in a monastery or convent in medieval times.  It will feature a single cloister allée, a covered walkway with Romanesque arches and columns.

As with monastery gardens of the time, the exhibit will have an abundance of utilitarian plants that can be used as medicine, dyes, aroma, food, and for beauty.

The exhibit will feature a garden in each corner of a larger rectangle:  one with medicinal plants such as fever few, digitalis, fox glove, and strawberries; a garden with plants for dyeing textiles and aroma such as lavender, lemon balm, and mint; a kitchen garden featuring vegetables such as turnips, greens, and dandelions; and an herb garden with such herbs as parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme for flavoring food.

Visitors will be able to enter the exhibit through five entrances. The entire garden will be enclosed by a 3-foot high brick wall.  In the center of the exhibit will be a circle garden with a fountain. The center allée will feature a statue. The center of each garden will have a container with a large edible fruiting quince tree.

The biggest challenge of the exhibit, says Jessie Keith, horticulture instructor, will be working with the large diversity of plant materials. “We have to make sure we have everything we need and that all the plants are ready. We will be growing the majority of the plants ourselves,” she said.

As with most Williamson Flower Show exhibits, every shop is helping out.

Carpenters are making the columns and arches, painters will do the faux finishing to make the arches and columns look like stone, masons will build the brick wall around the exhibit, machinists will build the arbors; and power plant students will provide lighting.

Among the many things the horticulture students are doing are forcing the plants in the greenhouse; building a waddle fence, a fence woven with reeds; and building the brick walkway.

This exhibit will be very rich in education, says Keith. “Visitors will learn how plants were used in medieval times, a time when monasteries were centers of culture, medicine, and education. It will be visually beautiful and very educational.”

[The Flower Show, with the theme “Legends of Ireland,” runs March 4-11 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, 12th and Arch Sts., Philadelphia. For information, call (215) 988-8899 or visit the Web site at www.theflowershow.com.]