Phipps Conservatory spring show awash in 'sunshine and rainbows'

Even though the Western Pennsylvania landscape is still a bit drab, the glasshouse at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens is bursting with color.

This year’s Spring Flower Show: Sunshine and Rainbows opens Saturday in the historic glass house in Pittsburgh’s Oakland section, one day before the vernal equinox.

The display promises tens of thousands of blooms, including popular spring staples alongside lesser-known, but just as stunning specimens such as New Guinea impatiens, kalanchoe, nemesia, muscari and lobelia.

“Phipps’ spring flower show has some consistent blooms year after year – lilies, amaryllis, petunias, daffodils, tulips, hyacinths and others among them – but the show’s theme shifts each year,” said Joe Reed, Phipps director of marketing and communications. “New displays are designed, and new varieties of these beloved spring blooms are added to the roster to complement the new designs.”

Among this year’s new features are a rainbow of flowers spreading out across the beds in the South Conservatory, the venue’s largest display room; an oversized prop tulip and glowing prop sun in the Palm Court; and floating planters that form a color wheel in the Victoria Room as “April showers” fall from above.

Also featured is the Himalayan blue poppy, a species of rhododendron native to China, Bhutan and Tibet. In the United States, the flower thrives best in mountain rock gardens.

Work goes on nonstop to keep the displays fresh through the show’s four-week run.

“Bulbs are forced to bloom at the appropriate time, and most bloom for about a week, so there is a lot of rotation and the schedule is intense,” Reed said. “Every day, plants are quickly lifted out of display beds and replaced with new ones to ensure that every guest is seeing as many full blooms as possible.

“In many cases, they are kept in their pots, which are buried the dirt, so they can be quickly lifted out,” he added.

The thousands of blooms are obtained through a combination of in-house growing, having specific plants grown for the show and from other sources.

“All the plants must be carefully managed in our production greenhouse to help them bloom at the right time,” Reed said.

While it’s still too cold for outdoor planting, Phipps visitors will begin to see some of the perennial blooms return along with the outdoor spring bulbs.

“Visitors in April are likely to catch the blooming of magnolia trees in our outdoor garden, for example,” Reed said.

The spring flower show, designed by Associate Director of Exhibits Jordyn Melino, runs through April 17. Hours are 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, with extended hours until 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

Timed tickets must be reserved in advance. For more information and to reserve tickets, visit phipps.conservatory.org.