No better feeling than working in our own neighborhood for our own neighbors. Nicholson Church Lane Community Garden is a long established Germantown growing hub, who in partnership with Neighborhood Gardens Trust are investing in some long term accessibility and functionality upgrades. Much love and respect to our team for sticking it out on this job through one of the most taxing winters for landscapers in recent memory.
One origin of the word garden–hortus conclusus, Latin for ‘enclosed plantings’–is the inspiration for Apiary Studio’s cheeky celebration of American gardens, HORTUS(IN)CONCLUSUS.
What makes a garden? What is its purpose? How does it help or hinder our interactions with our neighbors? Joy permeates the scene, answering these questions with playful energy.
Highlighting nostalgia, kitsch, and yard art, HORTUS(IN)CONCLUSUS features a mix of cut flowers, edibles, zany topiary, foundation shrubs, and groundcover that reference a wide range of cultural faves from Lite-Brites to retro park wells. A cast of concrete urban wildlife decoys pop up across the exhibit, and the chairs along the garden edges invite you to take a seat and stay a while.
ROOTED: Origins of American Gardening
CLOSING TODAY 🎟️ via our link in bio.
#ROOTED2026 #ThePhiladelphiaFlowerShow
Our cast of concrete urban wildlife decoys was made by Philadelphia sculptor Maya Björnson. Thank you Maya for getting the vision and bringing them to life! We can wait to see which of our 2026 projects these end up in.
HORTUS INCONCLUSUS is a cheeky celebration of some elements that make a garden read as distinctly American. Please rest your legs by having a seat on our benches and chairs—they’re not just for show. Be a neighbor and try introducing yourself to someone next to you—you can do it! Have a laugh—and ask yourself what you might add to the list? We’ll share more on how and why we arrived at this purposefully uncanny design in the coming days.
Many thanks and shouts outs are in order to our incredible coworkers and collaborators. Productions like this are a huge undertaking requiring so much coordination and teamwork. First and foremost we thank @phsgardening for putting on an event that brings 250k crazy plant people together every winter for almost two centuries, and supporting public horticulture, community greening, tree planting, jobs training and soooo much more year round.
He’s only playing !!!!
One more teaser before the 197th PHS Philadelphia Flower celebrating American gardening. Our exhibition tilted HORTUS INCONCLUSUS aims to make you smile :)
HORTUS INCONCLUSUS
Apiary Studio is excited to be returning as landscape exhibitors at the 2026 PHS Philadelphia Flower Show. Our garden plays with one origin of the word garden—hortus conclusus—Latin for ‘enclosed plantings.’ Are borders such as fences, walls or hedges intended to keep something out, or keep something in?
….
More on this and the uncanny contents of our space as we begin construction this week. The show runs from March 1-8, and is now in its 197th year. Started in 1829, the @phsgardening Flower Show is both the nation’s largest and the world’s longest-running horticultural event, and a beloved annual tradition for plant people of all ages. We hope to see you there!
Is it even a flower show garden without a few teasers?
Apiary Studio is proud and grateful to be counted among the exhibitors at the 2026 PHS Philadelphia Flower Show. We’ll be sharing more in the lead up the event held this year from February 28 - March 8 with the theme Rooted: Origins of American Horticulture.
And now for something completely different :) a meticulously designed and constructed arbor that nods at some Jekyll precedents. We integrated this structure into and around the existing retaining walls and a staircase to nowhere, taking care to create an enticing destination that expands and reimagines the possibilities for using the driveway and side yard it abuts. In a few years it will be smothered with climbing roses.
We had the honor and opportunity of a lifetime to attend and co-present at @landscape_festival Bergamo where the producers, speakers and audience were world class, warm, welcoming and deeply inspiring. When you have the chance to gather with like minded folks from across the world, each of whom have something to add to the question or add to the solution, life feels too short! Our main take away from the weekend was to keep on going. To dig deeper and to try harder and to aim higher. There are many, many people to learn from and endless opportunities to contribute to a greater good. There are too many people to possibly name so we will distill the event into its book ends. To be greeted in the square by a Sarah Price @sarahpricelandscapes exhibition garden, someone whose planting style Martha has closely studied for her whole career was transcendent. Sarah’s remarks that we might shed titles of “designer” and “gardener” entirely and all fall under the cloak of GARDEN MAKERS was spot on. The conference ended with a chilling challenge by Aniket Bhagwat of @landscapeindia “Above all else we must be primarily concerned with the KIND OF SOCIETY we are creating; landscape architects must take responsibility for this because we are uniquely capable of addressing the problem.”
This one is a work in progress representing a dream collaboration with C2 architects and our shared client—adventurous people who empowered and challenged us to do something radical with crude materials destined for a landfill. The landscape would act as a visual counterpoint to a new addition but also attempt to make use of some of the waste produced in demolition and construction. The paving was largely sourced from the site, and these massive blocks had a past life as basement walls in another neighborhood.
📸: @jaimephoto79
Cool Beans :)
Moore College of Art is an urban campus on the Ben Franklin Parkway in Philly with several internal courtyards. This summer we had the opportunity to refresh two of them, including Stahl Courtyard above. This space is a fishbowl surrounded by galleries, a dining hall, and dormitories. It is pictured empty in this photo, but is soon to be filled with café tables and chairs. We saw cut two kidney-shaped planting beds into the existing concrete pad to introduce more shade and atmosphere, using small irregular pavers to infill between the curved edges and the existing pavement.
📸 @jaimephoto79
