Enjoy vibrant chrysanthemum displays inspired by Japan at Phipps' Fall Flower Show!

Starting Sat., Oct. 4, Phipps’ Fall Flower Show: Visions of Japan celebrates the prominence of the chrysanthemum in Japanese culture through vibrant autumnal displays. Mums in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and colors will be presented alongside evocative props including jewel-toned fans, a moon gate, a pagoda, foot bridges and a celebratory ryuu, or dragon, whose brightly colored body floats from end to end of the glasshouse’s iconic Sunken Garden. These mums will be grown using traditional Japanese techniques like disbud and cascade. 

The narrative will focus on how the human-nature connection is manifested in Japan. Highlights include the joyous festivals (aki matsuri) and parades that celebrate the autumn harvest season, the symbolism of chrysanthemums in Japanese garden culture and more. Broadly, the show presents an opportunity to discuss some of the unique strategies originated in Japan to promote horticulture as therapeutic, including Shinrin-yoku (forest bathing).

Exhibit Features

• Gaze upon a traditional bright red torri gate in our Palm Court as red, orange and yellow mums overflow from the garden beds
• Watch a showstopping 131 inch-long dragon slither through a rainbow of blooms beneath bright lanterns in the Sunken Garden 
• View a marvelous moon gate in the Victoria Room pond as fantastic fish swim about 
• Delight at a striking pagoda with a roof comprised of cascading chrysanthemums in the East Room 
• Marvel at fantastic fans throughout a sea of jewel tones like pink, purple and orange in the Broderie Room 
• Take a trip to a Japanese chrysanthemum festival in the Serpentine Room bursting with a captivating pink and yellow color scheme  

Since 1894, Phipps has been creating chrysanthemum-themed seasonal shows! Phipps Fall Flower Show is the longest running in the nation, making it a Pittsburgh tradition that you can't experience anywhere else. 

The growth and care of Phipps’ spectacular chrysanthemum displays are advanced and lengthy, requiring a full year of horticultural planning, growing and training expertise to bring these elegant blooms to you each fall.  Don’t miss seeing mums never before available to the public in addition to unique disbud and cascade varieties of vibrant color gradations of pink and purple to yellow and orange.

Opening the same day, Garden Railroad: The Age of Dinosaurs will highlight each distinct period, Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous, of the Mesozoic Era. Guests can watch a group of dinosaurs running through greenery while listening to the powerful sound of a dinosaur roar! In addition to these features, the plant evolution through the different time periods will be on display from ferns, cycads, and conifers to the first flowering plants. Each prehistoric period will have its own train to follow along so you can learn about their unique characteristics.

Fall Flower Show: Visions of Japan, designed by Phipps Senior Plant Procurement, Recording and Design Associate Laura Schoch, runs for only three weeks — through Sunday, Oct. 26 — so be sure not to miss it! Hours are 9:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. daily and until 10 p.m. on Fridays. Admission is $21.95 for adults, $19.95 for seniors and students, and $13.95 for children (2 – 18). Members and kids under 2 enter free. 

Photos © Phil Johnson II and Paul g. Wiegman