The Shipley Sprouts will exhibit an impressive collection of container gardens, flowering bulbs, and miniature landscapes at the 2007 Philadelphia Flower Show, which runs from Sunday, March 3 through March 11. After an incredible showing in 2006, with ninety-nine entries and eighty-five awards, the expectations are high for this year’s Sprouts.

Since September, the budding gardeners have been hard at work in the greenhouse, which is currently abloom with daffodils, amaryllis, muscari, tulips, and fragrant hyacinths. As nature runs its course and the last of the bulbs blossom into being, the students are busy adding the finishing touches to their carefully-tended container gardens.

Shipley’s horticultural club was named one of Main Line Today’s top “10 cool high school clubs” in November 2006. It has a long history at the School – and the Philadelphia Flower Show. This is the thirty-second consecutive year that the group will exhibit at the Show under the guidance of Shipley past parent, Leila Peck.


The Shipley Sprouts was started in 1974 after a greenhouse was donated to the School in memory of Frances Kellett Roberts ’41. An active Shipley volunteer, Frances founded the Green Thumb program to help raise money for the School during the Christmas Shop, today called the Shipley Shops. (Green Thumb still hosts a booth at the Shops. The group is also responsible for the “Greening of the School” each holiday season, an annual plant sale each May, and various programs for garden and plant enthusiasts within the Shipley community throughout the year.)

At the request of then-biology teacher, Ruth Symington, two parents (and members of the Garden Club of Philadelphia) began working with students to help the greenhouse spring into life. So it was that Mary Allen and Leila Peck founded Shipley’s Sprouts. “The students brought in zucchini seeds and we had zucchini everywhere,” said Leila. “That was the only time we grew zucchini! The following year we potted bulbs and entered the Flower Show. Later, we started making and planting cement troughs and exhibiting them as well.”

The Sprouts have become a fixture at the Philadelphia Flower Show, receiving recognition for their container gardens in The Philadelphia Flower Show: Celebrating 175 Years (Adam Levine and Ray Rogers, New York: HarperResource, 2003). A full two-page spread is devoted to the Shipley Sprouts in the gorgeous coffee table book.

Since its inception, the Sprouts have won over 800 ribbons at the Philadelphia Flower Show, including a best of day rosette going to the youngest person ever to win that award. In past years, students have planted their award-winning bulbs in areas surrounding the Bryn Mawr Train Station and in Sarah’s Garden by Ludington Library. This year’s bulbs will be planted at the 34th Street Genesis Montessori School.

Other Sprouts & Green Thumb News
On Tuesday, February 13, The Garden Club of Philadelphia sponsored a lecture on “Bulbs as Companion Plants” by Brent Heath of Brent and Becky’s Bulbs in Virginia at Shipley’s Beechwood House. Seventeen stalwarts braved the icy weather to hear the well-known speaker. Green Thumb volunteers past and present, Secret Garden Committee members, and one Shipley Sprout, as well as members from local gardening groups, including Bryn Mawr Beautiful and the Garden Club of Philadelphia, were in attendance.