Spring has sprung at NE flower show

Hop in your hybrid car, turn up the tunes and get thee over to the Bayside Expo Center, as it undergoes one of its best annual transformations: that glorious false spring known as the New England Flower Show.

For their 137th annual flower show, the Massachusetts Horticultural Society (MHS) chose "Rhapsody in Green" as the theme for this year's show, emphasizing both eco-friendly gardening techniques and the patron color of all things fresh and lovely. The show, housed in the cavernous Expo Center, runs through Sunday, March 16.

The show's theme is certainly timely (and some could argue, trendy), coming as it does during a period of record energy prices, global warming fears, and resource and waste management issues facing Massachusetts and the nation. MHS has programmed a number of exhibits and lectures that specifically address how to make gardening and landscaping choices that minimize a harmful environmental impact, as well as focusing on sustainability of these creations. And if you're a little tired of worrying about things like climate change and eco-friendly living, then just don't read any of the exhibitor statements and focus on the sights, the smells, and the soothing tones of one of the daily regular live music performances.

Interestingly, this year's theme proved a little more difficult for the show's main participants to carry out with quite the same spectacular results as in years past. While a number of groups tried to incorporate the "Rhapsody" portion of the theme, seeking to evoke the lyrical from their landscapes, this too often resulted in somewhat cloned water features - we've seen it before and we'll see it again and again. Meanwhile, some bizarre bits and pieces (think a giant metal moose or a triad of glowing conical thingies) marred otherwise quite attractive exhibits.

Over at the Design Competition exhibits, the designers really tried to make it work, resulting in some interesting creations. This year, Dorothy and her posse took a stroll down the yellow brick road in one of the miniature garden scenes, though she may have been upstaged by another runway. Commonwealth Avenue was re-envisioned as a backdrop for the designers to work out their innermost floral desires on four wire dress-forms. The verdant creations competed for best dressed and the result was mixed - one dress looked ready to be the belle of the ball, while another was like an accident in an exotic flower shop.

More successful - and even more inspirational - were some of the smaller exhibits. The City of Boston Parks and Recreation Department focused their garden exhibit on the practical, using plants that were attractive without being water hogs, as well featuring a solar-powered trashcan and a simple recycling receptacle. It's not pretty, but it's a long overdue step in the right direction for every city.

The Garden Club of Hingham's exhibit, "Serene Green," stands out for its simplicity while including subtle forms, like a rusted out and now moss-covered chair, serving as the inspiration for this garden patio. The found object, now recycled and repurposed reminds us of the tangible legacy of our consumption and how we can face the challenges this presents. That lesson is as easily applicable to the small urban space as it is to something much larger and wilder.

While not small by any means, Peter R. Sadeck's "Vernus of Spring" also carefully mines the "Rhapsody in Green" territory and produces a walk-through gardenscape that effectively matches sustainable and hardy plantings (moss, bamboo, ferns) with numerous examples of materials that can be employed in creating a retreat that pleases both the senses and the environment.

The 137th New England Spring Flower Show runs now through March 16th at the Bayside Expo Center. For info and tickets, visit www.masshort.org.