A Butler woman's vision is about to bloom at the Philadelphia Flower Show at the end of the month.

Polly Berginc, a member of the Butler Garden Club, is the chairman of the American Institute of Floral Designers' exhibit at this year's show, which runs from March 2 to 10 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

Because the theme for this year's show is Great Britain, Berginc said, “Our exhibit is basically the British Crown Jewels. We are interpreting that through floral design.”

“The exhibit is the Tower of London,” said Berginc. “There will be 15 designers. Each one will do a jewel in the collection, diamonds, rubies, sapphires.

“I'm going to be working on a throne done in red roses,” she said.

“It will be like walking into the Tower of London,” Berginc said. “There will displays on both sides representing the gems and at the end will be the throne room. The display is 50 feet round in diameter.

“I designed it in my mind and worked with a set designer, Chris Kanienberg of Wish Painting and Sculpture out of Wilmington, Del. He's building the facade of the Tower of London for me,” Berginc said.

She said there will be 40 people, designers and volunteers involved in setting up the AIFD exhibit.

Berginc's work on the exhibit began in June when she began sketching out a design.

As chairman, she is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the exhibit: maintaining a budget, creating a set design, assembling designers and volunteers and coordinating the set up and teardown of the exhibit.

She said she has had 40 people a day contacting her about the exhibit, and the pace is accelerating as the opening day of the flower show draws closer.

“There are a hundred details that must be taken care of every day,” she said of dealing with designers, volunteers, merchants and contractors.

“This is a big job. I had no idea when they asked me three years ago how big a big a job this was going to be,” said Berginc.

It's been a three-year commitment for Berginc because the chairman must first serve as third chair and then co-chairman for the two previous AIFD exhibits.

In past years, Berginc said, AIFD exhibits have won several awards, including “Best in Show,” the top honor.

For a chance of an award this year, she said, everything in the exhibit must be perfect for the judging, but it doesn't end there.

For the length of the show, a rotating crew of eight to 10 volunteers will be in attendance to maintain the exhibit, either in the morning before the show opens or at night after the show ends.

“They will replace wilted flowers. Every morning the exhibit must look like it did on the first day,” said Berginc. And then when the flower show is over, they must tear the exhibit down.

But before that happens, the AIFD exhibit will be seen by hundreds of thousands of visitors to the flower show.

“Last year, we had 270,000 visitors over the course of the eight-day event. This year, the show has added a day so the show will extend over two weekends, and we expect that number to go even higher,” said Alan Jaffe, director of communications for the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, the producer of the Philadelphia Flower Show.

“The first flower show was held in 1829, so we are in our 184th year,” said Jaffe. “There were some breaks for wars and depressions, but we tell folks we are in the 184th year. It's the largest indoor flower show in the world and the oldest in the country.”

“We have 50 major exhibitors. The people that create the huge displays are professional florists, landscapers, high schools, colleges, even the EPA creates an exhibit,” Jaffe said.

In addition, Jaffe said, the flower show will field competitive floral arranging and horticulture in hundreds of categories.

Berginc will be leaving for Philadelphia on Feb. 24 to oversee the construction of the exhibit and will remain there until the show ends March 10.

Berginc has 25 years of experience in floral design and shop management, she said, and has been a feature designer in past Philadelphia Flower Shows. She is a freelance designer now.

“I had a background in art. I was active in the arts in high school,” she said of her career in floral design. “This is what drew me to it, my background in art.”