Cerebral Garden Puts the Spotlight on American Grown Flowers & Foliage at Philadelphia Flower Show

Jennifer Reed of Jennifer Designs Events is no stranger to highlighting American grown flowers and foliage at the world-renown Philadelphia Flower Show this year marking her sixth year being involved. As an event florist, she is usually inhibited by others’ wants and color choices, but her floor displays have become an outlet where she gets to freely indulge in a creative process she loves and is able to see it come to fruition.

This year her passion project went cerebral – literally! It all started when she was looking for inspiration for this year’s show whose theme was “The Garden Electric” and asked participants to capture the spark of joy while giving or receiving flowers. While visiting the brain exhibit at the Franklin Institute, one of the oldest and premier centers of science education and development in the country, she was walking the brain exhibit and noticed the displays depicting firing neurons resembled curly willow branches. Inspiration was sparked! Jen was able to discuss with Dr. Jayatri Das, Chief Bioscientist of the Franklin Institute how the brain worked, the proportions and more – using them as an educational resource and fact checker for her initial designs.

The end result of this collaboration – The Cerebral Garden: a journey through the brain cortex along the neural pathways to the engaging garden of the mind.  As you enter the cerebrum brain you will be surrounded by an array of florals and plants intertwined with electrical impulses that underlies our thoughts, behavior and perception of the world. And that indeed it was – complete with an interactive menu of buttons to light up the different portions of the brain!

Picture of the finished exhibit – with the tranquil calm part of the brain in a neutral palette and the colorful part of the brain using vibrant tones. Photo credit @ Rob Cardillo

Construction of the sculpture of the brain and tree took 3 months, set up of the installation took one and half weeks, the show took place for over 10 days and tear down was accomplished in 3 days. All of it could not have happened without the numerous volunteers, collaborators and of course botanical sources – the majority of which were American flower and foliage farms. Large plants were sourced from local nurseries and the fresh cut botanicals were generously provided from DVFlora, The Floral Source, Resendiz Brothers Protea Growers, Mellano and Company, CamFlor Inc., FernTrust Inc., Van Dyk Farms and Continental Floral Greens. (Interested in the source list – check it out below!)

“I love working with textures… and our American farms have such a wide variety of diverse and fresh botanicals that it is easy for me to work with their flowers and foliages to bring my visions to life.” Jen said of working with American grown florals.

While the entire display from start to finish was a tremendous amount of work, the most challenging aspect was to make sure the display was as fresh, fragrant and vibrant on Day 10 as it was on Day 1 despite dry environmental conditions. The team’s efforts paid off. The Cerebral Garden was awarded GOLD from the Pennsylvania Horticulture Society and once again showed that with talent and ingenuity you can create stunning, winning designs using what’s homegrown from our American floriculture industry.

Botanical Sources

Fern Trust – Natural and Tinted Foliage (Plumosa, Tree Fern, Carolina), Nandino, Spanish Moss and Sheet Moss

CamFlor – Mimosa, Acacia and Limonium

Mellano & Company – Larkspur, Genestra, Alstroemeria and Kale

Resendiz Brothers – Protea, Wax Flower, Banksia, Leucadendron and Grevillia

Continental Floral Greens – Salal, Smilax and Huck

DVFlora – Anthurium, Orchids and Dianthus

Van Dyk Flowers – Tulips

Other acknowledgements of partners and collaborators who helped bring this creation to life include:

Lead Designer- Katie Whener, Layers of Lovely
Designer, Chris Clark
Designer, Jennifer Bard
Designer, Lisa Harper
Educational Resources- The Franklin Institute
James Sannino – Custom fabricator of interactive digital experiences specializing in lighting, web, and educational design.
LR Design Studio, Landscape Architect Lynn Raus
Lauren Weintraub, Belovely
Dan Winkelman – Twist Kits: Sculpture Artist of making the creative art experience more accessible and sharable.
Christy Howton- Graphic Designer- Papertree Studio