Tyler Students Win Big at Philadelphia Flower Show
Tyler's Landscape Architecture and Horticulture programs garnered an astounding six top honors at the 2024 Philadelphia Flower Show, including a PHS Gold Medal, awarded to a major exhibit that receives 95 or more points out of 100 in the “criteria of design, horticulture, plantsmanship and educational value.”
The Tyler exhibit, Piers, Progress and Processes: Charting a Course for a More Bountiful Future, which explores the history of Philadelphia's Pennsport neighborhood along the Delaware River and demonstrates ways to reconnect the neighborhood with the waterway that has been so integral to its history, was additionally awarded:
* The Bulkley Medal of the Garden Club of America, for a special exhibit in the field of horticulture, botany, or conservation. “The exhibit of exceptional educational merit increases the knowledge and awareness of the viewing public. It is the exhibit that best combines an important message with the ability to convey that message to the public.”
* The Alfred M. Campbell Memorial Trophy, given to the "educational major exhibit that demonstrates the most successful use of a variety of plants in a unique fashion.”
* The Pennsylvania Landscape Nursery Association Trophy, given to an exhibit “showing the most effective use of plants and best use of design in the educational category.”
* Special Achievement Award of The Garden Club Federation of Pennsylvania, awarded, if merited, “to an exhibit of unusual excellence (under 1,000 square feet) in the category of Conservation.”
* The PHS Gardening for the Greater Good Award for the exhibit “that best exemplifies PHS's mission to activate horticulture and gardening as a force for the ‘greater good’ by advancing the health and well-being of the people and their environments.”
The exhibit contrasts recent re-wilding of pier areas in Pennsport with the Delaware River's history as an active shipping port for coal, sugar and other goods.
“We are creating an exhibit that focuses on culture, materials, elements, gardens and climate, both past and present, of Philadelphia’s River Wards, specifically Pennsport,” Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture Michael LoFurno said during the building process. He guided students through the project along with Adjunct Instructor and Landscape Architecture alum Anthony Zachornacki.
The student team working on Piers, Progress and Processes included Landscape Architecture majors Cecelia Quay, Owen Lambert, Ruby Kabuiku, Laetitia Zagabe, Simone Keg, Maggie Murphy, Taylor Place and Zachary Neyen.
Horticulture seniors Frankie Napoli and Zach Quintois and Landscape Architecture juniors Lambert and Neyen additionally worked closely with Benjamin Snyder, Manager of Tyler's Greenhouse Education and Research Complex at Temple Ambler readying the more than 500 plants from 60 different species used for the exhibit for the week of the Flower Show, which will be on view at the Pennsylvania Convention Center through March 10.
Read more about the exhibit. View a video on the development and construction of the exhibit.
Temple Ambler Content Manager James F. Duffy contributed to this article.