Flower Show Takes Visitors on a ‘Riviera Holiday’

With citrus trees and sweeps of lavender, the world’s leading floral and garden designers delighted visitors at the 2020 PHS Philadelphia Flower Show with a “Riviera Holiday,” immersing them in the sights, scents and tastes of the Mediterranean coastal region known for its beauty, climate and resorts.

The show, held Feb. 29–March 8 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, featured lush garden landscapes and exquisite floral displays highlighting a variety of Mediterranean plants. The Entrance Garden, for instance, set the stage with its use of specimen trees, including olive, cypress, citrus, mimosa and palm. Regional motifs in materials such as stucco, stone, tile and terracotta added to the effect, while “intimate environments” evoked the romance and allure of the Riviera.

Other exhibits included “Reflection” by Mark Cook Landscape & Contracting LLC in Doylestown, Pa., which won Best in Show for landscape design. Inspired by the Riviera, the display featured an alley of arbors, a soothing fountain and colorful plantings leading to a unique walled room for individual reflection.

Best in Show winner for floral design went to Schaffer Designs in Philadelphia for “Le Strade Delle Cinque Terre” (“The Streets of the Five Lands”). Using color-blocked rectangular panels adorned with bright blooms, Schaffer brought to life the homes of Italy’s ancient fisherman, who painted their houses in bold and pastel colors so they could easily spot them as they returned from sea.

Other honorees included Arrange LLC, silver trophy winner for its floral design “On the Sea,” which used white-fabric sails and an array of tranquil colors to depict sailing, one of the most illustrious Riviera pastimes. Stoney Bank Nurseries in Glen Mills, Pa., also a silver trophy winner but in the landscape category, won for “Paraíso de Andalucía.” The display centered on a meditative garden nestled among the remnants of an old olive orchard in the Andalusia region of Spain. Waldor Orchids in Linwood, N.J., meanwhile, won a PHS Gold Medal – Display Garden for “Rest.” The exhibit conveyed the need to take time to relax in an era of instant gratification, with plants purposely chosen for their ability to grow with very little maintenance.

In addition to the landscape and floral exhibits, there were many opportunities for guests to learn about the importance of connecting with one another through horticulture to create beautiful, healthy and sustainable communities, a key mission of PHS Philadelphia Flower Show organizer, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS). The Home Gardening Hub, for example, was an interactive section featuring today’s garden trends, chats with experts and hands-on learning sessions. Potting Parties, meanwhile, was a container-gardening workshop hosted by acclaimed floral designer Tu Bloom, where attendees made their own vibrant container display. And Make & Take allowed
attendees to take home their own handmade plant crafts, such as a recycled-material container with a succulent.

As the kickoff to the PHS Philadelphia Flower Show, the Bloom Philly Festival is an annual tradition that encourages everyone in the Philadelphia region to break out of the winter doldrums with a variety of special spring-celebration events such as the Bloom Philly Window & Lobby Decorating Contest. The competition invites businesses in the Greater Philadelphia area and beyond to transform their businesses’ window or lobby displays into festive flowery scenes inspired by the show’s theme. This year, a panel of expert judges voted the ARTrageous Brush & Flow art studio in Philadelphia as both the Grand Prize Winner and the winner of the “Best Representation of the Flower Show Theme.” P.J. Clarke’s restaurant in Philadelphia won “Most Instagrammable” and Philadelphia’s Milica in the Hat Millinery won “Fan Favorite.”

The PHS Philadelphia Flower Show is the nation’s largest and longest-running
horticultural event. The International Festivals & Events Association has honored it as the best event in the world, competing with events such as the Kentucky Derby Festival,Tournament of Roses Parade, Indianapolis 500 Festival and other international celebrations. The PHS, an internationally recognized nonprofit organization founded in 1827, plays an essential role in the vitality of the Philadelphia region by creating healthier living environments, increasing access to fresh food, growing economic opportunity and building deeper social connections between people.

Swan Hose Is Expanding!

Last year was a big year for Swan–The Watering Company. Not only did we debut a brand-new website, we greatly expanded our manufacturing plant in Waco, Texas, to better serve our customers and our community.

Swan purchased the Waco manufacturing plant at 700 Jewell Drive in 1986. It was 103,000 square feet of space and primarily responsible for garden hose manufacturing. While the plant served the manufacturing aspect of our business well, it didn’t have the space needed to warehouse the raw materials to make our products, as well as the finished goods once manufactured. The limited amount of space also forced us to hire more temporary workers rather than permanent employees.

Fast-forward to Sept. 20, 2018: Swan broke ground on a 300,000 square foot expansion. The additional square footage was allocated to two large warehouses that essentially bookend the existing manufacturing plant—one for raw materials; the other, for finished goods. Both of these new warehouses opened in September 2019, expanding our Waco facility to a total of approximately 400,000 square feet.

This new layout maximizes Swan’s flow-through manufacturing efforts. Now raw materials can be stored in the new warehouse on one end and brought into the original plant as needed where they’re manufactured into our garden hoses. The finished garden hoses are then moved into the new warehouse on the other end where they’re stored for trucks to load and deliver to our various sales outlets. Currently, these include stores across the United States and Canada including Ace Hardware, The Home Depot, True Value and Walmart, as well as most regional hardware chains.

Bringing all aspects of our manufacturing process under one roof gives Swan a quicker time to market for our customers, especially during our busy season and periods of extreme heat and weather. The expansion also allows us to create more quality, local jobs in Waco, something we’re especially proud of.

Prior to the expansion, Swan needed to employ temporary workers during our busy season, but then had to let many of them go during our off-season. This new warehousing space now allows us to shift temporary workers into roles in our warehouses during the off-season, which dramatically increases our permanent full-time employee base while relying less on temporary workers. Swan projects the expansion will create 60 new permanent positions in Waco by 2021!

Headquartered in Atlanta, Swan also has another strategically located manufacturing plant in Sparks, Nevada, where it manufactures and warehouses garden hoses. Our expanded plant in Waco now falls in line with our Sparks manufacturing plant.

Keep checking back with our blog to find out other exciting developments happening at Swan this year. We’re soon to debut our new SoftTOUCH garden hose! 

 

The SoftTOUCH PVC garden hose is appropriately named because it has the look and feel of rubber, so it’s soft to the touch and easy to hold as you do your watering tasks. It also showcases two new features: Swan’s SpinMALE technology and Ergonomic Female Grip. SpinMALE Technology causes the male coupling to spin so you can attach watering accessories such as nozzles without turning the hose! The Ergonomic Female Grip turns with the female coupling to allow for an easy and tight attachment to the water source.

A Brand-New Look for Swanhose.com

As part of our commitment to being the leader in our industry, we’ve spent the last several months creating a new website design that better aligns with our core value: to enrich lives by delivering Earth’s most essential resource—water—to where it’s needed most. This translates into a greatly improved educational and e-commerce experience to assist you, our valued customers, in making the best purchasing decisions on your watering needs.


For starters, we’re presenting our entire product catalog online for the very first time. That’s more than 50 hoses and watering accessories! We’re also offering exclusive “how-to” articles and more in-depth information to assist you with your watering needs. Simply click the new Inside SWAN tab at the top of the site’s pages. Here, you’ll find an Articles link leading to our monthly posts on a wide range of topics such as a buying guide for garden hoses and how to install a soaker hose.

You’ll also find that our products are now organized into six categories—Professional, Residential, Rubber, Soaker/Sprinkler, RV Marine and Accessories—to better match market needs, whether you’re a hardworking farmer or contractor, proud homeowner, passionate gardener or RV/boat enthusiast. Simply click the new SHOP tab at the top of the site’s pages to find them.


Each of these product categories is then broken down into several subcategories to help you target your search efforts further and easily find what you need. For instance, are you looking for the best garden hose to water your lawn? Check out Residential and then Gardening/Lawncare. How about a rubber water hose that’s rated for hot water? You’ll find those in the Hot Water Rubber subcategory under Rubber Hose, and so on.


We’ve also added a new Sale category, so check here for great deals on clearance items. And of course, if you’d rather search by our great brands, simply click their corresponding tabs across the very top of the site’s pages: Swan, Element and Goodyear.


You’ll also notice that we’ve complemented our products with all-inclusive descriptions. These give you the nitty-gritty on every product detail, along with a bulleted list of special features. In addition, we’re now featuring beautiful lifestyle photography of each hose and water accessory, so you can see them at work in real-life situations. We’re proud of what we create and want you to see the knowledge, experience and creativity that flow through each product so you’re 100 percent satisfied with your purchase.

As an added bonus, for those of our products that come in different lengths or sizes (such as hoses and clamps), we’ve now created one main product page with an easy-to-use drop-down menu featuring each choice. Now you simply have to scroll through the menu, find the size or length you need and click. Then add to cart and you’re done! Our new website is also optimized for smart phones, tablets and desktop computers to offer the highest level of convenience no matter how you shop.


We’re also introducing this blog, which offers information in a more conversational format on related topics such as gardening. We invite you to engage with us here and become part of our community. Let us know what watering topics you’re interested in discussing, what watering-related projects you’re working on, what you love about our hoses and watering accessories, as well as ways we can improve to serve you better.


So, take a look around and discover the new swanhose.com today. And be sure to check back soon. There’s more in store!