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Memories of attending the Philadelphia flower show as a kid:

1. The overwhelming smell of hyacinths as you entered the exhibit hall.

2. The exhibits, which included everything up to and including full-sized trees 20 or 30 feet tall.

3. The miniatures, especially the itty bitty flowers - some no bigger than your pinkie fingernail.

4. The hawkers of vacuum cleaners, nonstick frying pans, food choppers, and the like that were mixed in with the more traditional flower/plant/garden-related stalls in the vendor's hall. They made that guy who sells Oxy-Clean look like a shy, retiring guy.

5. Getting to pick out and take home a new houseplant every year. I remember one year I got a burro's tail, one year a wandering jew, I think there was a goldfish plant in there somewhere, and I know in fourth grade I got two cacti, a fuzzy/prickly cactus I named Barbara, and a spineless succulent I named Trevor (because the thin stripes on his leaves made him look like a lawyer in a pinstripe suit, and Trevor was as lawyer-y a name as I could imagine). Barbara lasted for a few years and finally rotted off at the base thanks to some overzealous watering on my part. Trevor thrived on whatever neglect or loving care we threw at him, and he started flowering and producing baby Trevors within the first year or two. At least count he has made more than 20 of them that we potted and shared with other people, including one that went to college with me, some that went to my first job, and two that are sitting in my bedroom right now. I think the Trevor at my parents' house is the original, and the one that I finally pitched a year or so ago was one of the first offspring. That means that Trevor has been around since - get this - 1982-ish. That plant is older than half of the players on most professional sports teams. Duuuuuude.

And a bonus - the huge tissue-paper flowers on dowels that the vendors used to sell at the show. I don't know if they do anymore (ETA - scroll down to the photo in the link above - I guess they do still sell them! Huzzah!), but I remember getting a hot-pink one as a kid that was in my room for years. This all came to mind because I found instructions for making them here, thanks to a link from The Crafty Crow. I hadn't thought of these in probably 20 years, but now I am going to make a dozen of them tomorrow, just because I can and they're awesome and it makes me smile every time I think about them.

Can you tell I'm totally jacked about the trip Liza and I will be taking to visit my parents and see the flower show this March? Yeah, just a little excited. Like, I want to throw the kid in the car and start driving NOW.