Flowers at Macy's Secret Garden

A Burst of Color at Macy’s Secret Garden Show

This has been a very long winter. It has been known as the coldest winter in 30 years with 50 days below zero degrees (our average is 20). Even our local weatherman Paul Douglas made fun of our unbearable winter with a badge we could wear that said “I survived the worst winter ever”. Although it is technically spring, sadly our winter is long from over.

Yesterday feeling the effects of a long, harsh winter on a whim I drove to downtown Minneapolis and headed to some much needed color and inspiration at the Macy’s Secret Garden Show. As I rode up the escalator to the eighth floor auditorium, I could smell the delicious fragrance of flowers that became happily overpowering as I headed to the entrance. I was entranced by that long forgotten smell.

As soon as I stepped inside The Secret Garden I was in heaven. My pure white world exploded into vibrant hues of pinks, reds, yellows and orange. Those long forgotten pleasures to the eyes that brought a smile to my tired soul.

Come, take a walk with me through Macy’s Secret Garden. Close your eyes after and inhale the sweet fragrance of a million flowers.

Flowers at Macy's Secret Garden

Minnesota TRAVEL TRAVEL BY REGION TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY United States

A visual feast at Macy’s Painted Garden

Screen Shot 2013-03-28 at 9.41.47 AMThis year’s Macy’s Flower Show is a definite stunner to the senses. The theme is The Painted Garden and is inspired by the colorful, brilliant flowers, jewels and market hues of India and Southern Asia. For most Minnesotans like myself, who are literally starved of color right now, the rainbow hues of the Painted Garden offer a visual feast to our hungry eyes.

As you walk through the room, all at once you are at peace as you smell the fragrance of a thousand flowers. Gentle background music lightly hums in your ears, and the room is an elaborate display of colors ranging from a magnificent variety of tropical flowers to the brightly colored hanging umbrellas and gorgeous paintings along the walls.

I still can’t decide what my favorite flower or work of art is at the Painted Garden. But I’d have to vote either for the centerpiece of the show, the elaborate, exotic elephant sculpture which proudly wears a blanket made of 20 different species of dried and fresh plant material or the insanely surreal Phalaenopsis Blue Orchids which are out of this world.

Come, take a look for yourself at some of the gorgeous flowers that paint the 8th floor of Macy’s department store in downtown Minneapolis. You will not leave this post disappointed!

Minnesota TRAVEL BY REGION TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY United States