What's blooming in Baltimore's Rawlings Conservatory? Mums and more
Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Kim Hairston
“Mums, Mischief and Merriment,” the fall garden show at the Rawlings Conservatory in Druid Hill Park, opens Saturday and runs through Sunday, Nov. 21.
The medieval theme includes a lady dragon made of mums and her glittering mosaic egg, knights, and towering castle walls. There are shields and banners and a stockade.
Oh. Right. And 40 varieties of mums, including 1,300 in pots and hundreds more in the body of the dragon and in the hanging mum "balls."
Kate Blom, general manager of the Conservatory, has made lots of "friends" in Baltimore. Thus the shields are on loan from Centre Stage and the banners and knights came from the Renaissance Festival.
If the castle walls and balcony look familiar, it is because "we recycle everything," Kate said. They were once the walls of China, Mexico, the Emerald City and Victorian England in previous garden shows. "We just put a new face on them."
Squeezed by city budget cuts, the Conservatory is now closed on Mondays and Tuesdays - an extra day each week - but Kate still expects several thousand visitors for the flower show.
"Our shows are as good as ever and the numbers get better every time," she said.
The Conservatory is open Wednesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free, but a $5 donation by adults is suggested.
