Macy's Flower Show

Spring came to New York last week, but it was only at Macy's in Herald Square. Their annual flower show, with a "Secret Garden" theme, is ongoing until April 6th. I had some free time last Wednesday afternoon, so headed in to view the show. If you're in the area and have time you should pop in for a look. 

The showpiece is a dress made entirely of red flowers: roses, gerber daisies, red spathiphyllum, and carnations, along with a few others I couldn't identify. I loved the sleeves, which consisted of draped amaranthus blooms. I would love to have a dress made entirely of flowers. It's gorgeous and definitely draws a crowd.

The "Lady in Red" dress, as it's titled, is 14 feet tall and consists of 2,000 flowers. I learned that the flowers are arranged in small bunches that can easily be switched out once the individual flowers began to wilt. That way the full piece will retain a like-new freshness throughout the entire show. 

There was a security guard pacing back and forth around the dress, periodically shouting at everyone to "take your picture and move on." Every time he said this, the crowd would thin for a second, only to be replaced with a whole new swarm of people.

A nice little lady asked me to take her picture next to the dress. I asked her to take mine, after which I was asked by two or three other ladies to take their picture. It was quickly becoming apparent that I was going to be Macy's unofficial photographer if I didn't escape soon. Luckily, I was able to join the starting tour to escape the picture-taking madness.

The tour started out interesting, with the tour guide, dressed in a red suit jacket and bright green bow tie, spouting off facts about the show and the dress. There are over 200 different kinds of flowers/plants included in the show's designs, with an estimated total of 30,000 plants filling the store. It definitely changed Macy's interiorscape.

We moved slowly through the different "rooms" created throughout the store's main level. Most of the plants where arranged on shelves raised above the aisles to allow the constant flow of foot traffic through Macy's to remain unhindered.

The giant floral mobiles hanging above the escalators caught my eye. Each of hanging flower forms are covered in fresh flowers. They were fun.

As we moved through the store, our beginning group of 20 people swelled to much, much more. The tour guide stopped us often to point out the varieties of plants. I knew what most of them were, so soon became bored with the tour. It was turning out to be like one of my college plant identification courses. I decided to break away and wander around enjoying the bright colors and lush arrangements by myself.

Each day during the flower show, they have a new bouquet of the day. I was expecting a large tabletop arrangement on a counter or table, but was pleasantly surprised. Wednesday's bouquet was 12 feet tall and sat firmly on the store's floor. It was the largest "bouquet" I'd ever seen.

Purple orchids and paper butterflies intertwined with bare vines snaked up one side of the bouquet, while the other side was covered with yellow and orange roses backed by delicate ferns. Butterflies and orchids dotted the arrangement's canopy. It was stunning. I just wanted to take a bunch of the roses home with me! I wondered what they do with each bouquet after the day is over.

I further distanced myself form the tour group at that point, because it had become so crowded. I just enjoyed my time taking pictures and viewing the beauty all around. Cherry blossoms and hydrangeas are two of my favorite flowers (I guess that isn't saying very much because I have a lot of favorites), and I found myself surrounded by them.

I wandered up the stairs to the balcony overlooking the main floor. Down one of the balcony's side aisles covered with arches of grapevines, I found this guy. He was probably two to three feet tall.

I took a few pictures of the main floor from the balcony, and noticed the tour group below. The guide was pointing out the blossoms on a double-flowering cherry tree. I walked down and looked at it after the bulk of the tour had passed by. It was beautiful.

After being surrounded by such fragrant, colorful lushness, it was a let down to walk outside into the cold, gray day. I'm so ready for spring to come. I can't wait until NYC's trees begin to leaf out and the flowers start to appear. However, it will come all too soon and turn into summer, which is always way too hot for me here in this concrete jungle.