A flower-show potpourri

Shock and weather, sore throats and Disney-love, freeze-dried roses and a hot-air balloon in six neat pieces.

This is the 2010 Philadelphia International Flower Show?

You betcha.

Center City's MODA botanica, which calls itself "an art-driven floral studio," caused a stir at the 2009 flower show with an imaginative interpretation of the traditional garden allée, terrace, and waterfall. "People either loved it or hated it," says Armas Koehler, one of the two-year-old firm's three founders.

Could be the story with MODA's second appearance this year, as well.

Koehler's cagey about the details, but suggests that the 2010 exhibit, in the show that opens Sunday, will be inspired by shipping, transportation, packaging, and "mass-market globalization" themes. And that the end result will, yes, "provoke and shock a little bit."

All this Sturm und Drang will be expressed through huge shipping containers, which you probably haven't seen artfully displayed in your neighborhood lately. But all over the world, they've been turned into houses, cafes, dormitories, schools, markets, and even museums.

MODA's containers will have passport stamps, graffiti, and who knows what else on them. "Visitors won't have any problem noticing us," Koehler says.

Not that it's ever been a problem for this crew.

It's still winter

Whenever folks are transporting flowers in winter, weather is a major worry. That is also true inside the Convention Center, where temperatures are kept in the mid-60s through show week.

It feels much colder during setup, when the back doors stay open to allow exhibitors to unload trucks, plants, and props. You see people moving very quickly. You see a lot of fleece.

Ron Mulray of the American Institute of Floral Designers recalls a flower show about 20 years ago, when it was still at the Civic Center in West Philly. Disaster struck after 400 tropical anthuriums destined for the AIFD exhibit were left outside on a loading dock at the airport.

Of course, these colorful beauties froze and turned an inky shade of black. Luckily, more were located and overnighted to Philadelphia in time for opening day.

"But what an expense," says Mulray, owner of the Philadelphia Flower Co. in the Far Northeast.

Left speechless

Last year, Mulray had a problem of a different sort.

All through setup, he'd been yakking with abandon. The temperature was predictably cool in the Convention Center, and mulch dust and diesel fumes filled the air.