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  Store displays hint at the design savvy H.J. Benken brings to the Cincinnati Flower Show.
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By Carol Miller H.J. Benken Florist and Greenhouse has always had a way with displays. On its sales floor, there's a full house facade, which realistically shows off the store's plants in window boxes, in foundation plantings and around the patio and flowerbeds of the mock house. Not too far away, a greenhouse bench has an exotic display of orchids that looks like what you'd find in a rainforest. For the past several years, the retailer has packed that flair for design into a four-day stint at the Cincinnati Flower Show, a move that nets Benken about 200 new customers each year. Displaying at a flower show can be time-consuming, especially timed as it is at the end of April, and according to co-owner Kathy Benken, expensive. But the payback appears to be well worth the effort. "What Benken does is special," said Mary Margaret Rochford, director of the Cincinnati Flower Show. "People line up to see it. They did an exhibit a few years ago that covered the four seasons -- seasons of life, not year. The last section had a casket. Life follows nature, nature follows life. It was very appropriate, absolutely meticulously done." This year's display focused on color, with an "abandoned" playhouse in vivid hues as the central focus. Like the seasons of life garden, it drew crowds and awards. The Benken display won an award from the Chicago Horticulture Society for an exhibit showing outstanding horticultural skill and knowledge, as well as second best in show and a gold medal. How the Cincinnati Flower Show works Most flower shows make money from fundraisers, sponsors and gate receipts and do not charge exhibitors for display space. This frees up show coordinators to be particular about designs and horticultural integrity. Getting in. Garden retailers, horticultural societies, designers and wholesalers who plan to display submit a design for the show's approval. There are hundreds of exhibitors, so a garden center's chances of getting in rely almost fully on the quality of the design submitted. The design is likely to be modified, and the experienced show staffers often offer advice. Not only must the design be top notch, but it must also be horticulturally correct. For example, late-summer bloomers should not be planted next to spring bulbs and plants with differing soil requirements should not share a bed. When setting up the parameters of its show, the Cincinnati Flower Show invited the members of Royal Horticultural Society (who judge the Chelsea Flower Show) to fly over to consult. The RHS now participates in the show every year. At the Philadelphia Flower Show, the country's oldest, exhibitors get in by invitation only, although newcomers are welcome to call and make themselves known. "They'll have to make their case," said Steven Maurer, marketing director of the Philadelphia Horticultural Society, which hosts the show. Setting up the display. Benken had only a handful of days to set up its elaborate display before the show began. "All of our employees volunteer to set up, as well as friends, customers and employees who volunteer to man the display," Benken said. "There's a waiting list of who gets to do the show." Two employees per day for four days set up the display. The first day the employees tackled the construction projects, the second day was devoted to shrubs and large plants, and the third to blooming plants. The fourth was spent putting on finishing details and cleaning up. This year, they were lucky and did not have to work all through the night before the show opened. Gaining exposure. Marketing is low key at the show. The Benken volunteers hand out a spring booklet that lists the store's entire stock of spring plants. In the brochure are directions to the store, which is conveniently just up the hill from a major park and shuttle point for the show. This year, the Cincinnati Flower Show tested using Benken's property, which has a flat field, as a park and shuttle site. "It worked out really well for us," Benken said, "although more people parked here than the shuttle could handle. We had to throw magnetic signs on our private cars and ferry people over ourselves." And Benken had a garden enthusiast crowd parked at her store. When they returned from the show, most went inside to buy a plant or two.
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