Olympic Host To Welcome Flowers First

The Southeastern Flower Show will "Welcome The World With Flowers" to the Town Hall Exhibition Center, City Hall East in mid-town Atlanta, GA on February 21-25, 1996. Sponsored by Pike Family Nurseries, WSB-TV Channel 2's Family 2 Family Project, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgia Power Company and Metro Brokers, this largest juried show in the region -- six competitive divisions are judged by accredited horticulture and artistic judges -- benefits the Atlanta Botanical Garden (ABG).

Minutes from downtown, the 30-acre botanical garden in Piedmont Park, which includes a 15-acre restored hardwood forest called "Storza Woods," will be celebrating its 20th Anniversary as the Olympic Games come to town. ABG Executive Director Alston Glenn says the major community event assists the garden to fund the education, ecology, and preservation programs which support of its mission "to develop and maintain plant collections for the purpose of display, education, research, conservation and enjoyment . . . ," while introducing the botanical garden to new audiences from which the ABG "cultivates new members, volunteers, and visitors." To further acquaint the public with conservation issues, the ABG displays its own non-judged garden exhibit at the Flower Show each year.

1996 Show Chair Flossie Dodge calls the life-sized gardens created by twelve of the South's premier landscape professionals -- whose variations on the theme reflect their creators' individual personalities and their ingenuity to simulate living botanical gardens indoors in the dead of winter, often by forcing blooms to create a floral fantasy out-of-season -- "a major attraction." This year four 10' by 15' rooftop gardens will be featured for the first time; but regardless of the display size, exhbitors typically spend 10 days and $60K setting up displays for the four-day event. When the four-acre showcase closes, however, participating landscapers donate plant materials to the Southeastern Flower Show's Legacy Garden, which is built each year in an Atlanta neighborhood in need. This year's recipient will be . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Expected attendance is 50,000 visitors this year. Call (404) 888- 5638 for Southeast Flower Show ticket information. Call (404) 876-5859 to work the Atlanta Botanic Garden into your travel plans for the XXXXXXXXth Olympiad

Graphic: SE Flower Show logo

Illust'n: Line drawing of proposed garden exhibit.

The South's premier landscape professionals submit plans and sketches (like the one shown) for the life-sized garden displays they will create indoors at the Southeastern Flower Show in Atlanta, GA.