15th Annual Newport Flower Show Celebrates the Flora and Fauna of Africa

Africa boasts the most diverse range of plants and animals in the world. The 2010 Newport Flower Show, Safari Flora and Fauna, will capture the imagination as it celebrates that continent's exotic treasures with colorful and vibrant floral and horticulture displays, lectures, workshops, shopping and entertainment. Benefitting The Preservation Society of Newport County, the show will open on Friday morning, June 25, and run through Sunday, June 27, at Rosecliff in Newport, Rhode Island.

Arriving guests will begin their safari with a stroll through a garden of life-sized topiaries on the front lawn of Rosecliff, while browsing the Gardeners' Marketplace for specialty plants, flowers and garden accessories. On the back lawn, the Oceanside Boutiques will offer more exciting shopping opportunities.

Floral designs and horticulture exhibits, as well as the photography division, will have an African focus, inspired by the continent's animals, geography, culture and history. And as always, the children's division will teach budding young gardeners how to create their own floral arrangements and care for plants, and will also include a reptile show and entertainment by a master drummer from Mali, West Africa.

Special guests at the show will include world-class plant explorer Tony Avent, and international floral designer and competitor Marie-Françoise Déprez.

The Opening Night Cocktail Party on Friday, June 25, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., will launch Newport's summer season with a cocktail buffet, live music, and entertaining surprises.

The show will continue through the weekend with themed floral exhibits, horticultural entries, and garden designs staged throughout the elegant reception rooms of Rosecliff, its oceanfront terrace and lawn.

The Newport Flower Show will be open to the public from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday, June 25, and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday, June 26 & 27. Advance sale admission tickets are $17 per person. At the door tickets will be $25 on Friday, $23 on Saturday or Sunday. A special "Bring a Friend" ticket is available for Sunday, June 27 only, providing 2 adult admissions for $25. Tickets for children between the ages of 13 and 17 are $6, and all children 12 and under are admitted free.

Admission to the Opening Night Cocktail Party and Buffet is $125 for Preservation Society members, and $150 for non-members.

Free lectures and demonstrations by noted plant experts, flower designers and gardeners will also be presented throughout the weekend.

For more information and to purchase tickets for the Newport Flower Show, visit NewportFlowerShow.org or call (401) 847-1000.

Rosecliff

With Newport's largest private ballroom, Rosecliff was constructed in 1902 as a party pavilion for one of the leading society hostesses of the Gilded Age. This snow-white terra-cotta mansion, modeled after the Grand Trianon at Versailles, was created for Theresa Fair Oelrichs, heir to the Comstock silver lode in Nevada. It hosted many of the most fabulous entertainments of the period, including a fairy-tale dinner and a party featuring magician Harry Houdini.

All proceeds from the Newport Flower Show benefit the ongoing landscape restoration efforts of The Preservation Society of Newport County, a private non-profit organization accredited by the American Association of Museums and dedicated to preserving and interpreting the area's historic architecture, landscapes and decorative arts. Its 11 historic properties-seven of them National Historic Landmarks-span more than 250 years of American architectural and social development.

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