A toddler clutches her mom’s arm with one hand while firmly grasping a bright purple pinwheel in the other, quickly making her way up the spiraling sidewalk lined with African violets.

She reaches and pushes open the heavy doors, above which are rusted letters that spell out “Garfield Park Conservatory.” What awaits inside is the conservatory’s Show Room, outfitted with spring bulbs of every kind and color.

The Garfield Park Conservatory, located in Chicago, is hosting its 2023 Spring Flower Show from Feb. 15 through May 14. 

The theme of this year’s show, “Bee’s Knees,” provides “a peek into the wondrous relationship between bees and blooms,” according to the Garfield Park Conservatory’s website.

Andrew, a Garfield Park Conservatory employee, is a floriculturist that helps to maintain the conservatory’s gardens. He has been put in charge of maintaining the Show Room, where the “Bee’s Knees” exhibit is being held. 

“It’s pretty much full service,” Andrew said. “Cleanup, I have to sweep up material off the floor, water, lay out materials, swap out material.”

Director of Conservatories Mary Eysenbach and Deputy Director of Conservatories Matt Barrett were the ones to choose the theme of “Bee’s Knees” for this year’s show, as well as the plants Andrew would work with.

“There’s the director of conservatories and deputy director of conservatories, they come up with the general concept and pick out plant material,” Andrew said. “From there, I lay out the plant material.”

While he is responsible for designing and maintaining the Show Room for the “Bee’s Knees” exhibit, Andrew cannot claim responsibility for growing the plants himself, he said.

“We have a whole team of people that grow the various products you see at the show,” Andrew said. “I’m just in charge of making it look nice.”

Alongside Andrew’s flower displays are “empty observation and demo hives from Garfield Park Conservatory’s beekeeping program,” according to the Garfield Park Conservatory’s website. 

While actual bees could not be added to the Show Room’s exhibit, according to National Geographic, “flowers aren’t just visual spectacles and smelly beacons (for bees). They’re also electric billboards.”

Thus, while not intended by the Garfield Park Conservatory staff, a few straggler bees were able to detect the electric fields of the exhibit’s flowers and make their way into the Show Room.

Reservations to attend the “Bee’s Knees” show and any other gardens at the Garfield Park Conservatory are free, with many taking advantage of the opportunity. 

One such individual was Samantha Conley, a student at Joliet Junior College. Conley could be found in the Garfield Park Conservatory’s Desert House, equipped with her canvas, easel and varying green paints. 

“I’m doing a class at JJC for painting and our assignment is observational painting,” Conley said. “So, this is what I decided to do.”

However, Conley said she did not see herself visiting the Show Room’s “Bee’s Knees” exhibit because her painting would likely take a couple more hours to complete.

Someone who took full advantage of the Show Room and its “Bee’s Knees” exhibit was internationally recognized photographer and artist Zoe Miller of Wicked Vision Photography.

“I do fantasy photography,” Miller said. “Mermaids, fairies, butterflies.”

Miller was shooting for designer Vivian Lou while at the “Bee’s Knees” exhibit, with her model dressed as a butterfly to fit the theme of the Show Room’s gardens.

“I’m shooting for a designer today, Vivian Lou,” Miller said. “I styled the models to look like butterflies to go with the garden and the designer’s clothing.”

Danielle, who was Miller’s model for the day, enjoyed being photographed in front of the exhibit’s Pink Powder Puff Tree. As Danielle points out, these trees look very similar to the Truffula Trees found in Dr. Seuss’ children’s book, “The Lorax.”

“Well, I like over there, they have a little kind of Lorax tree with the little pom poms,” Danielle said.

Andrew’s favorite part of the “Bee’s Knees” exhibit is that it never stays the same for very long. If you were to visit the show one week and come back the next week, you would notice that many plants were replaced with new ones, he said.

“Everything is constantly changing and evolving,” Andrew said. “For example, those tulips straight ahead, the purple ones, are fading, so next week, I’ll be swapping those out for something else.”

As of right now, Andrew is considering replacing the fading purple tulips with fresh weeping cherry plants, which have been cultivated in Japan for centuries. Just this week, he introduced hydrangeas to the show.

It is Andrew’s hope that those who are visiting the Garfield Park Conservatory for the “Bee’s Knees” exhibit are excited about what spring has to offer, he said.

“We just think of it as something fun to get people excited about spring and summer,” Andrew said. “Winters get long and cold and dreary, so it’s nice for the public to be able to come here and have a colorful explosion.”

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