March 02, 2026
Provided Image/Tu Bloom
Horticulturalist Tu Bloom, who hosts potting parties at the Philadelphia Flower Show, also does the floral arrangements for the Grammy Awards. Above, Bloom with some of his designs.
At his potting parties at the Philadelphia Flower Show, botanical artist and horticulturalist Tu Bloom said he tries to convey the importance of making mistakes when designing an arrangement.
"When people come to the class, I want them to understand that mistakes are inevitable, but mistakes make perfection," Bloom said. "That's the biggest thing when they come and take the class, I ease that out with humor so that people know, 'Oh my gosh, even though my container looks ratchet and even though my floral design looks interpretive dancing sometimes, just go out there and have fun with it.'"
Bloom will be at the annual showcase at the Pennsylvania Convention Center from now through March 8 hosting his parties, which are workshop on container gardening. But it's far from his biggest event of the year. Every winter, he's also the force behind the arches, arrangements and other floral displays on the red carpet at the Grammy Awards.
In 2008, Bloom said he was invited to design a garden at a house in Pasadena, California, and was connected to the former president of the Recording Academy. Bloom had noticed that there weren't any flowers on the show's red carpet, where celebrities showed off their outfits and answered questions ahead of the award show. He asked the organizer if they would consider adding a floral element. After a meeting with some of the executives, he's spent the last 18 years creating the designs and putting them into action.
A day after the Grammys, Bloom said he starts planning for the next year's show because he works with partners who grow specific plants and flowers just for the event. Multiple meetings take place throughout the year to discuss colors, what went well at the last awards show and what can be done differently at the next one. Bloom said it takes about 10-15 team members for planning, another 80 people to grow and harvest the blooms, and 100 people to make the arrangements themselves.
A display of purple orchids was one of many arrangements at this year's awards show on Feb. 1.
Provided Image/Tu Bloom
After the planning is done, work begins about three months before the show to make some of the structures and fabrication. Bloom starts to put together some of the heartier flowers anywhere from 11 days to two weeks in advance, and the more delicate blooms are put together three to five days ahead of time. It costs $200,000 to $250,000 and requires tens of thousands of stems each year.
Despite the prestige of his current gig, Bloom said his beginnings in florals started as a child growing up in subsidized housing in Chicago. He and his mom used to cultivate cilantro and basil in the abandoned parking lot behind his building, and he learned how to genetically reproduce plants for fun as a teenager.
Flowers turned into a career after his father was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and died a few months later in 2006. To help cope with his grief, Bloom built a heated greenhouse for his mom out of old glass windows and doors that included a koi pond.
"Flowers are so iconic, throughout millennias people have resorted to flowers for all different occasions, whether it be celebrating death, celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, etc.," Bloom said "I just feel like it saved my life."
