Pennsylvania Horticultural Society - Philadelphia Flower Show

For the 1983 show, the vegetables that appeared in the first Philadelphia Green exhibit were grown by Lois Burpee, widow of David Burpee, of the Burpee seed company, at her home, Fordhook Farm in Bucks County. Lois Burpee supported PHS urban greening efforts and offered the use of Burpee's greenhouses to grow the vegetables.

The first year PHS staged an exhibit to showcase Philadelphia Green, its urban gardening program, was 1983. This exhibit featured a typical Philadelphia street of row houses decorated with colorful window boxes, containers made from recycled automobile tires, a corner sitting garden, and a community vegetable garden planted in the vacant lot between the two houses.

NEW HORIZONS - LARGE NICHE. Second prize. Mrs. M. A. Cramer, Providence Garden Club, Spectacular lighting of complementary colors and perfect plant material. Spaces and shapes forefully delineated. Lacking in mystique for class. Material: Strelitzia

BOLD VENTURE - MEDUM PEDESTAL, First prize, Mrs. M. A. Cramer, Jr., Providence Garden Club. Material: Anthurium

Sandy Ward (at right) presents award to competitor at the 1983 Flower Show