PHS Entrance Garden | Grace Savage
The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society is excited to share its forecast for the top trends emerging from the 2024 Philadelphia Flower Show, “United by Flowers.”
The Flower Show has a long history as a globally recognized stage on which innovative floral designers, garden designers, and gardeners can showcase breathtaking and risk-taking creations. In its long history, the Flower Show has been credited with being the platform to show the newest plant introductions and the birthplace of global industry trends. A prime example is the first American showing of the now much-beloved poinsettia in 1829 during the inaugural Flower Show.
In its 195th year, “United by Flowers” highlighted a variety of new trends in flowers, houseplants, landscapes, and floral event design, which PHS is sure will dominate in the coming years across the gardening and floral industries.
“The Philadelphia Flower Show provides a platform for some of the world’s most renowned designers and growers to highlight the best and newest ideas in the industry. This serves as a source of inspiration and joy for our visitors. These displays often reflect up-and-coming industry trends that are then incorporated by gardeners, landscapers, and florists of all levels, around the globe,” says PHS VP and Creative Director of the Flower Show, Seth Pearsoll.
For the full list of trends identified at the 2024 Flower Show, please see below.
Trending House Plants – Aroids, Begonias, Gesneriads, and Terrariums
The 2024 Philadelphia Flower Show displays thousands of plants each year in its plant competition housed at the PHS Hamilton Horticourt – the competitive plant and flower area within the event. Among them, these three types of plants and terrariums reigned supreme in addition to being incorporated into many of the large-scale exhibits.
- Aroids such as philodendron, amorphophallus, monstera, and anthurium continued in popularity. All these plants had individual categories in the Flower Show’s competitive classes and excellent participation, reflecting a still growing interest in this plant family.
- Begonias saw a surge of public interest with more begonias displayed, along with a wide array of rare begonias such as Begonia pteridifolium and Begonia montaniformis.
- Gesneriads, the flowering plant family most popularly known for including African violets, also saw tremendous growth including streptocarpus, sinningia, petrocosmia, primulina, and kohleria.
- Terrariums saw an explosion in popularity at the 2024 Flower Show. This approach to growing plants can accommodate a wide array of plant groups including gesneriads, ferns, and carnivorous plants. They are prized for their eye-catching container designs and the wide variety of style options can make them low maintenance, eye-catching, and approachable for all levels of gardening experience.
Landscape Trends
Rewilding of land is a gardening and landscape trend on the rise in 2024, especially the rewilding of urban areas. Rewilding helps to increase biodiversity and restore the natural processes of an ecosystem by reducing or ceasing human activity and reintroducing plant and animal species to take over a space naturally. This trend was well-represented at the 2024 Flower Show in Kelly Norris’ exhibit “A Beautiful Disturbance,” which featured a vacant lot overtaken by plants, as well as Apiary Studio’s exhibit, “Right of Way” which celebrated the plants and wildlife found on highway roadsides.
Floral Event Design Trends
Hyper-locally sourced cut flowers are another trend identified at the 2024 Flower Show. Jennifer Designs’ exhibit, which depicted a breathtaking floral map of the United States and celebrated how we are all connected through flowers and gardens, utilized hyper-local cut flowers to color-code the floral map, according to USDA hardiness zones. The use of locally sourced cut flowers in this display has shed light on the carbon footprint of mass-grown imported flowers.
Virtual gardens use mixed media, projection, and photography depicting gardens, flowers, and plants, together with physical flowers. This connotes a rise in the popularity of incorporating virtual mediums to create an immersive floral experience for guests.
Table-top topiaries and arrangements provide pops of color, texture, and unique shape throughout an event space or floral display.
Floral Trends – Color, Scale, Shape, and Structure
- Monotone, bold neon colors (especially orange and pink), and color-blocking. This use of simplified yet striking and bold colors can already start to be seen across the floral industry and in many floral event settings.
- Large-scale, statement floral sculptures and arrangements that are focal points are taking place over the previous preference for many smaller clusters of florals.
- Organic materials like fruits and vegetables will be included in arrangements and designs, providing a bit of whimsy.
- Organic shapes, particularly from 3-D printers and the use of untraditional mediums such as concrete will allow designers to display stunning and organic shapes and masses, using natural materials such as moss, grass, and foliage, reflecting the idea of the “no flower-flower arrangement.”
- Anthurium in unique, vibrant colors that are both natural and created will provide an eye-catching addition to arrangements, sculptures, and floral displays.
The Philadelphia Flower Show is one of Philadelphia’s greatest traditions and a harbinger of the spring season. The 2024 Flower Show aims to provide joy, inspiration, and education to guests, and it showcases the unique design voices of some of the world’s most impressive, cutting-edge garden, landscape, and floral professionals. These stunning designs and plants reflect up-and-coming trends within the floral and horticultural industries, that all levels of gardener — from professional to plant-curious—can take inspiration from to inspire their own homes and gardens.
