Milwaukee Mitchell Park Horticultural Conservancy SHOW DOME

The Mitchell Park Horticultural Conservancy Show Dome is always fresh and new. Come to the Milwaukee Domes and experience the uplifting aromatic floral display that is the Floral Show Dome. metropolitan area, every day, all year, in a unique to the entire world, Milwaukee venue.

Milwaukee's Show Dome may be anything from a formal Japanese garden, to a street in Dickens' London, to even a Caribbean beach! Five seasonal floral displays are done yearly. The theme of each Show Dome display dictates the setting, landscape design and prop design. Each Milwaukee Domes show requires extensive long-term planning, while the actual metamorphosis from one theme to the next takes place over just a week or two. Thousands of individual seasonal plants are used in each Show Dome theme. Lilies, poinsettias, azaleas, chrysanthemums, tulips, cyclamen, geraniums, and hundreds of other flowers are featured. Often, special event displays are planned based on the creative floral Show Dome themes.

Each Show Dome display has a specific theme, generally categorized as historical, cultural or fantasy, and is chosen at least a year in advance. Plants are selected specifically for a particular floral exhibit and grown at our Horticulture Division's Greenhouse Center. Once in place, a show may last from six to fourteen weeks. Potted flowers are changed out as needed. For a long-running Summer Show, there can be 3-4 complete changes of plantings. This care and maintenance assures an equally bright, vivid, and spectacular array of flowers for visitors from the first to the last day of any Show Dome display.

A landscape architect, horticulturists, arborists, artists, carpenters, electricians, plumbers and welders work together to create each spectacular Show Dome display. The actual process can take 8-10 working days. Show Dome props are modular and thus, versatile; they can be modified and reused. One building could be an Italian villa and then be transformed into a Spanish hacienda, Williamsburg mansion or southern plantation home in future shows. It is truly amazing to see how incredibly different and unique each Milwaukee Show Dome display is.

The Milwaukee Floral Show Dome provides serene settings to be captured by artists and photographers, duplicated by visitors in their own gardens, and used by students to learn about flowering plants. The Floral Show Dome offers beauty and inspiration for all.

See the Show Dome Schedule