Fast forward to 1991, and in preparation for the celebration, Huntington Bank put on the first and largest flower carpet display ever in the United States on the lawn of the Ohio Statehouse opposite their headquarters. The $50,000 Huntington Colors of Belgium was made up of 14,000 pounds of fresh begonia blossoms imported from Belgium and took 250 volunteers to assemble.
Among many sponsors and points of interest, Wendy’s came on board to sponsor the performance venue, “America’s Showcase.” The Smithsonian Institution presented “Seeds of Change,” a 12,000 square foot interactive exhibit which, according to the official AmeriFlora Guidebook, focused on “corn, potatoes, sugar, horse and disease.” General Motors presented “World Song,” a wide-screen 70 mm film produced for the U.S. pavilion of the Spanish Expo ’92 Celebration. And, the Columbus AIDS Task Force presented a Living Quilt made up of 2 ½ inch by 5 inch “patches” of annuals commemorating the many lives lost to the AIDS crisis.
There was an entire area dedicated to the Community of Nations featuring gardens meant to represent the countries of the African continent, Canada, Australia, Holland, India, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Russia, Monaco, and the United Kingdom.
An area entitled “America’s Backyard” featured typical gardens that you would find here as well as displays on recycling, environmental gardening, low-maintenance yards, a medieval-inspired knot garden and the famed Walt Disney World Topiaries, including Pluto and his dog house, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Mary Poppins, Roger Rabbit, and the hippos and elephants of Fantasia. (This was only the second time that Disney Topiaries had been on display outside of a Disney Park – the first being the 1964 World’s Fair)
On April 20 1992, George Bush, along with honorary patron Barbara Bush, Ohio Governor George Voinovich and comedian Bob Hope opened up AmeriFlora amidst lots of hoopla, a crowd of between 15,000 and 20,000, and a beautifully revitalized Franklin Park Conservatory including four new “biomes” of the Himalayan Mountains, desert, tropical rainforest and Pacific Water Garden in a newly constructed $14 million wing of the 1895 Palm House.
There were souvenirs of every type, including posters by Peter Max, Troll Dolls with AmeriFlora ’92 t-shirts and even roses named for Barbara Bush that could be purchased and planted to bring a little of the extravaganza home with the visitor.
Throughout the seven-month celebration, over 2.2 million visitors attended (less than the projected 4 million) along with a pair of pandas on loan to the Columbus Zoo from China that set a record for attendance not surpassed until 2004. The Columbus & Central Ohio economy had $562 million pumped into it directly and estimates from the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce estimate that an additional $415 million from spin-off and construction related projects to the $95 million dollar floral show.
During the run of the show, not every local business was onboard with AmeriFlora fever. Some even went so far as to suggest that Christopher Columbus should not be celebrated and in a letter to the editor of the Columbus Dispatch, dated November 10, 1992, Clinton DeWorth wrote:
“Three weeks after the closing of AmeriFlora ’92, I am saddened still to hear WTVN (610 AM) broadcasting venomous remarks about that wonderful expo.
 
Since spring, the station’s afternoon personalities have waged a campaign of negative comments and derogatory cheap shots against AmeriFlora. They have tried to convey the illusion that AmeriFlora was a flawed concept from the beginning, that anyone who visited Franklin Park was wasting time and that frequent visitors should get a life.

 Their negativism has been an insult to all of the volunteers, planners and financial guarantors who made it possible for Columbus briefly to stand on the pedestal of civic, artistic and cultural excellence. Sadly, their inability to appreciate these values may have discouraged thousands of central Ohioans from enjoying AmeriFlora.”
AmeriFlora closed on October 12, 1992 and was the major force driving an increase in 1992 hotel/motel revenues of more than $26 million. The study reported by the Columbus Dispatch on November 20, 1992 went on to report ”a $2.1 million increase in bed tax revenues and a $1.2 million increase in sales tax revenues over 1991. The construction industry benefited from increased spending, as did the restaurant and retail industries, the report says. Restaurant sales were up nearly $46 million this year, the report says, and visitors spent more than $2 million on entertainment and $13 million on goods such as clothes.”
The nearly 2 million visitors that never materialized blunted the impact anticipated on the neighborhood.
On it’s closing, Eva Crawley of Franklin Park South told the Dispatch “I wish it well. We’re looking forward to getting our free open green space back and our community back. Life will return to normal again.”
And while it would have been amazing to have had the jump start on local transit that a monorail from the airport to the convention would have provided, it is safe to write that the real lasting legacy of AmeriFlora is the much revitalized Franklin Park and Franklin Park Conservatory, which today is recognized as one of the top botanical gardens in the country.
It can be argued that without the renovation and expansion of the original palm house and the related biomes, it is hard to imagine that former conservatory director Paul Redman would have had the space for the Chihuly installation of 2003 that brought new attention to the Glass House that today is amongst the forefront of bringing botanicals and artwork together in the same setting.
The re-emergence and revitalization of our historic Franklin Park Conservatory seems to be the real legacy of AmeriFlora ’92. This year, 25 years since its creation, take a moment, stroll through the grounds of Franklin Park (or any of our beautiful city parks), and take in their fall splendor.