The Ghost Forest at the 2026 Philadelphia Flower Show
February 2026
Our team had a ball participating in the 197th, world-renowned, Philadelphia Flower Show.
Unknown Studio’s installation, “The Ghost Forest,” was a novel challenge for our team and a collaborative joy. Working with the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, our team conceptualized, sourced, organized, and installed a temporary garden. We are honored to have received both the Governor’s Cup and a Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Silver Medal.
Our installation explores this year’s theme, “Rooted: Origins of American Gardening,” which coincides with the nation’s 250th birthday. void represents where the American Chestnut once grew. A keystone within the eastern woodland, the Chestnut was at once interconnected with and sustaining of human life. Our exhibition invites the public to contemplate loss, while illuminating the beauty of a future woodland through partnership with the gardener.
This installation began as an idea in late summer 2025, and was refined over time through collaboration and conversation. Our Team actively engaged in work on the ground in Baltimore’s upland Piedmont, gathering of acorns, chestnuts, locust pods, hickory nuts, and magnolia cones over the course of months yielded time to contemplate the questions guiding this installation:
How do we fill the vast ecological niche of the American Chestnut while staying true to the native plant community of the eastern seaboard?
How do we preserve the cultural meaning of the Chestnut without losing hope of its return?
Is this a productive form of nostalgia?
Does a simple act of small-scale gardening make up for ecological and cultural loss?
Is something better than nothing?
Restoring the woodland and tending the forest floor will take stewardship in the smallest and broadest sense. The chestnut seedlings within our Garden are entirely American natives from two mother trees in Cumberland County, PA. That they live at all is the result of the persistence of people and the protection of their roots.
Immense gratitude to the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society for the invitation to participate, to The American Chestnut Foundation for seedlings, guidance, and knowledge, to Apiary Studio for sound advice, to Williamson College for the skilled extra hands, to Cylburn Arboretum for the timely prunings, to the Station North Tool Library for tools, and to our moms, families, and neighbors in Baltimore for the nut forage.
