This week The Embassy of Monaco visited the Philadelphia Flower Show, where the late Princess Grace of Monaco is honoured through the exhibition’s centrepiece: The Princess Grace Rose Garden. Visitors can see a replica of her iconic wedding dress within a rose garden of over 3,000 buds, designed by Renee Tucci.
In collaboration with the Principality of Monaco and the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) will display the garden until March 8th. It is one of many gardens on show at the event.
Monaco Government Tourist Office in NYC invited travel advisors, meeting planners & journalists to a private tour of the Philadelphia Flower Show, followed by a reception at the Kelly House, hosted by Mr. John B. Kelly III and Maguy Maccario Doyle, Ambassador of Monaco to the USA pic.twitter.com/toPws7sTZW
— VisitMonaco (@VisitMonaco) March 5, 2020
The exhibit, curated by Tucci, takes inspiration from the Roseraie Princesse Grace as well as the Princess Grace Rose Garden. The replica of Kelly’s wedding dress, on loan from private collectors Nicholas and Elizabeth Barranca, is an added ode to the cultural icon.
Created on behalf of the Principality, these thousands of freshly-cut flowers surround a platform upon which the dress sits. This replica garden at the Flower Show features the Princess Charlene rose, a Hybrid Tea variation of the bloom.
The Princess’s passion
Philadelphia, and the Flower Show itself, play fundamental parts in the life and story of Princess Grace. In her youth, Kelly, born and raised in the city, entered flowers into the show’s competition.
Later in life, after her marriage to Prince Rainier III of Monaco, Princess Grace designed a rose garden, cultivating hundreds of different varieties and often dedicating her spare time to flower pressing. In addition, Princess Grace founded the Garden Club of Monaco in 1968.
In an interview with Whyy, Tucci revealed Kelly had been a Philadelphia Flower Show judge many years ago.
Kimberly Paynter / WHYY
Her personal love for horticulture is revealed in her book “My Book of Flowers”, published two years before her untimely death. Like a scene from a fairy tale, the garden includes several glass jars inside of which small excerpts from this book are displayed.
As part of the Flower Show, the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation is sponsoring a symposium on horticultural biodiversity.