Food Among the Flowers at Philly's Show

The shift toward home food continues. Last year's surge in vegetable seed sales, with many companies reporting increases of 30 and 40 percent, was anything but an odd blip. This year's numbers are looking even better.

I kept a sharp eye out for this trend earlier this month while at the Philadelphia Flower Show. It's getting harder to put on a show in a time of decreasing corporate sponsorship and fears of poor attendance. Boston and Cleveland are among a number of cities that have declined to mount one this year. But Philly's annual eight-day event, which supports the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's Green City Strategy and is the largest show in the nation, forged on with its accustomed grandeur. I wondered whether a few more edibles might crop up among the forced hyacinths and fire-toned azaleas.

The theme this year, "Bella Italia," certainly inspired a focus on food. Wandering through the Pennsylvania Convention Center's 10 fragrant indoor acres, I noted a delightful motif: One exhibit after another featured a table set with glasses, a bottle of wine, and perhaps a loaf of bread and plate of cheese. American gardenmakers seem to picture Italians as perpetually enjoying the culinary good life outdoors in bowers of color and greenery. Correct or not, that's how I think of Italians, too.

The total effect made it the most satisfying flower show I'd seen in years. Endives nestled in window boxes, grapes climbed arbors. Several displays featured outdoor kitchens set among kitchen gardens. And the Men's Garden Club of Philadelphia won most of the awards, including best in show, with an evocation of evening in a Tuscan vineyard, complete with salad greens and spiky, silvery cardoons.

At the show, I had the opportunity to talk veggie gardening in a room packed with eager devotees, and I asked how many had grown some of their own food during the past year. Nearly every hand went up. When I asked how many were first-timers, many hands went up again.

An excellent booth called the Seed Source offered vegetable seeds from 11 companies, among them Franchi Sementi, known in the United States as Seeds From Italy (http://www.growitalian.com). Business was brisk. It seems I am not the only one who considers an envelope of bean or carrot seed the best little stimulus package money can buy.

People attend flower shows because they take place when signs of spring can seem like a tease, and this year's weather has been fickle at best. With the economic forecast even more iffy, I'll bet a few more cauliflower and corn rows would lure an extra dividend of visitors to the shows in 2010.