Spring Flower Shows in the Twin Cities

 There are two great flower shows coming up to help get you into the mood for spring!

Starting Saturday, the Spring Flower Show at Como's Marjorie McNeely Conservatory will be abloom in the Sunken Garden with more tulips than would probably ever fit in your back yard. There will also be a few thousand daffodils and hyacinths, accented with snapdragons, irises, ranunculus, hydrangeas, freesias and lilies. If the sight and smell of all those flowers isn't enough to pique your interest, there also will be gardener talks, family activities such as storytelling, games and take-home crafts as part of the opening of the show this Saturday and Sunday, known as the Spring Fling. The Spring Flower Show is free and open to the public from March 27 throug May 2. For more information, visit www.comozooconservatory.org.

Additionally, Macy's is again teaming up with Bachman's to put on a flower show that has become a rite of spring. Starting Sunday, "Spring is in the Air" will be on display in the eighth-floor auditorium of the Macy's building, 700 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis.

"In this show you can't just look down at the beds, you have to look up," said Dale Bachman, CEO of Bachman's.

That's because there will be flowers parachuting from the ceiling, trapeze swings covered with foliage, and a two-story-tall hot-air balloon landing in a bed of Diamond Frost euphorbia. The 10 rainbow-colored gardens will be filled with flowers and hardy plants that Twin Cities gardeners can grow in their own back yards. Invasive buckthorn, one overly hardy plant, will even make an appearance repurposed into a twig gazebo.

The free show is open during store hours Sunday through April 11. The two-week show will include in-store events, family fun days, cooking demonstrations and entertainment in addition to springs colors.