Wambui Ippolito

The renowned Philadelphia Flower Show (PHS), the nation’s largest and longest-running horticultural event, recently showcased the work of several landscape designers and contractors. The event, held June 5-13, took place outside for the first time ever, with over 75 installations spanning 15 acres in Philadelphias’s FDR Park. Turf was there to take in the all the sites and inspiration.   Just some of the show’s highlights from landscape firms and designers included: Best In Show, and the Gold Medal for Landscape went to Wambui Ippolito, an East African landscape designer and horticulturalist. Her show garden Etherea, (pictured above) inspired by memories of East Africa, featured low water plants such as euphorbia, sedum and yucca, a large circular metal arbor, meandering stone paths, a metal birdbath, and a pond. Mark Cook Landscape & Contracting of Doylestown, PA was awarded the Silver Trophy this year for its installation (pictured above) featuring a pergola, hosta, ferns, grasses, catmint, and more. Cook has won various awards in each PHS over the last 11 years including Best in Show in 2020 and 2017, and the Silver in 2014, 2018 and 2019. Treeline Designz of Portland, OR, founded by Iftikhar Ahmed, helps brings natural living into the urban environment. The firm’s “Dancing with Nature” garden (right) incorporated an organic structure anchored by a bamboo forest that rose through natural vegetation surrounding reflection ponds. Muted colors in the outer landscape, including blue hydrangeas, lead into the inner garden meant for meditation and socializing as well as a ...