Gilding the Lillies at the Newport Flower Show

The Newport Flower Show, shown at its usual home at Rosecliff, will be held this year at Marble House. Photo courtesy of Discover Newport.

The first iteration of the Newport Flower Show was held in 1914, organized by Edith Wetmore and the Newport Garden Association at Chateau-sur-Mer as a friendly competition for local estate gardeners.

This year’s show will lean heavily into its Gilded Age past with the theme “The Grand Tour,” a nod to the European pilgrimages taken by the well-to-do in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, on June 23-25.  

The exterior and back lawn area of Rosecliff during a past show. Photo courtesy of Discover Newport.

The event is actually taking its own Grand Tour of sorts down Bellevue Avenue to Marble House, the famed home of William K. and Alva Vanderbilt, since its usual setting — Rosecliff — is undergoing renovations. That move allowed organizers to tap into the allure of the Vanderbilt family and all of its Gilded Age grandeur and excesses. 

“We’re seeing incredible interest, fueled not only by normal interest into Gilded Age history, but with Julian Fellowes’ ‘Gilded Age’ series it’s been absolutely heightened,” says Pat Fernandez, chairwoman of the Newport Flower Show. “We wanted to provide our floral answer to that.” 

This year’s exhibits will be scattered throughout Marble House, on the lawn and in the Chinese Tea House. Photo courtesy of the Preservation Society of Newport County/John Corbett and Dave Hansen.

Holding the show at Marble House perfectly complements the theme, says Jim Donahue, the show’s horticulture chair and curator of historic landscapes and horticulture at the Preservation Society of Newport County, since Alva Vanderbilt was such a proponent of the Grand Tour, traveling throughout Europe and the Middle East while collecting artifacts and precious objects, and even circumnavigating the globe on the family’s yacht, the Alva. 

Alva Vanderbilt, standing, and her daughter, Consuelo, seated, during a trip to Egypt. Photo courtesy of the Preservation Society of Newport County.

“It’s the perfect spot to hold a ‘Grand Tour’-themed show,” Donahue says. 

The festivities begin Friday, June 23, when the show opens at 9 a.m. (8 a.m. for VIP ticket holders) and continues with a gala reception from 6-8 p.m. that traditionally kicks off Newport’s summer season. Visitors to the party will enjoy gourmet nibbles, live music and costumed performers while taking in the many exhibits and vendors. 

The floral categories include horticulture (think mixed planters, potted plants and cut specimens), botanical arts (dried or pressed flower materials) and floral design (fresh plants and materials). Many classes are open to all levels of gardeners, from novice to pro.

“I love that the blue ribbon one year might go to someone who has a glorious estate and another year to a seventy-five-year-old lady who’s gardening out of her garage,” Fernandez says. “Gardening is a meritocracy — it’s definitely an equalizer.”  

Photo courtesy of the Preservation society of Newport County/John Corbett, Dave Hansen, Gavin Ashworth and Sandy Nesbitt. The back lawn and fountain of Rosecliff, and assorted floral designs at past flower shows.

New this year is an Allium schubertii growing challenge; the showy purple blooms of the ornamental onion can grow to fifteen inches across and are quite the conversation piece. Visitors will also find succulents, roses, orchids, “parent and child” plants, begonias, ferns and topiaries.

The botanical arts categories will be on display at the Chinese Tea House, with categories drawing on the Grand Tour tradition: shoes (a must for visiting Europe’s great cities), trinket boxes, necklaces, letter openers (for opening all those flowery, FOMO-inducing letters sent back home) and paperweights festooned with dried plant materials.

Photo courtesy of the Preservation society of Newport County/John Corbett, Dave Hansen, Gavin Ashworth and Sandy Nesbitt. The exterior of Marble House.

Expect drama and show-stopping creations in the floral design category. Angular features will dominate the “Wonders of the World” exhibit, based on Alva’s visit to the Great Pyramid of Giza with her family and friends, while exhibitors will create fanciful floral collars in the “Drama” category, inspired by a striking cloak Bertha Russell (aka Alva Vanderbilt) wears to the opera in an episode of “The Gilded Age.” 

Vendors, exhibitors and shopping will round out the Marble House’s back lawn during the event. Talks and lectures will return next year, says Fernandez, when the show moves back to its roomier Rosecliff environs. 

The gold ballroom of Marble House, which William Vanderbilt had built for his wife, Alva, as a thirty-ninth birthday present. Photo courtesy of the Preservation society of Newport County/John Corbett, Dave Hansen, Gavin Ashworth and Sandy Nesbitt.

The Newport Flower Show takes place June 23–25 at Marble House, 596 Bellevue Ave., Newport. Timed tickets must be purchased in advance and cost $25–$50; $225 for Friday’s opening night reception. A separate $64 ticket gains entry to a floral arranging demonstration with Sandra Sigman and a copy of her book, French Blooms. Visit newportmansions.org for more information.

A young admirer takes in a floral display. Photo courtesy of the Preservation society of Newport County/John Corbett, Dave Hansen, Gavin Ashworth and Sandy Nesbitt.