Floristry exhibition: “Dresdner Frühling” as a performance show of Saxon horticulture

For the new edition, the exhibition designer Bea Berthold was inspired by paintings. “I first went to the Old and New Masters in Dresden to get inspiration,” says the designer, who is planning the show for the fifth time. At the end of the brainstorming phase, there were around 20 sketches.

The heart of the exhibition is a large-format floral replica of Monet’s water lily pond on the spacious upper floor of the palace. However, water lilies are not used – after all, they are not early bloomers and would not survive the low temperatures at the exhibition site – but flowers of the season, which symbolically reproduce the plants in Monet’s painting. For example, low, blue pansies stand for the water surface.

But Bea Berthold also worked with contemporary artists for the exhibition. The Dresdeners Mandy Friedrich and Lucas Oertel provided original works that are integrated into lush, floral arrangements.

The practical implementation of the design ideas is teamwork. For example, Wolfgang Friebel, former garden manager at Schlosspark Pillnitz, is responsible for the entire plant procurement, the arrangements with the gardeners and the coordination of all those involved in the construction on site. Around 30 people set it up a week before the start of the exhibition.

“We have to order the plants for the exhibition from the nurseries a good year in advance,” says Bea Berthold. After all, they have to be used with pinpoint accuracy in order to unfold their flowering splendor at exactly the right time. Most of the plants shown at Dresden Spring are not yet blooming in nature at the beginning of March – in the surrounding Great Garden there are lush stocks of winter aphids and crocuses, tulips or even imperial crowns, as can be seen in the palace, but it is still outside no trace to be found.

Last but not least, the “Dresden Spring in the Palais” builds on a long tradition of horticultural exhibitions. The first “First Public Exhibition of Rare Fruits and Plants” took place in the Palais as early as 1828.