MOBILE, Alabama -- What better way to celebrate the first day of spring than with a visit to the Festival of Flowers

By 10 a.m., three tour buses had arrived from Baton Rouge, La., Little Rock, Ark., and Enterprise, Ala., for the 21st annual event--just the first of some 40 buses expected to arrive over the next four days.

The Festival of Flowers kicked off at 9 a.m. Thursday under a brilliant blue sky, with the temperature hovering around 70 degrees and a hint of breeze. It was perfect weather for the annual showcase that takes place under a giant white tent at the back of the Providence Hospital campus.

A replica of Big Ben, designed by Mobile architect Craig Roberts and built by Vance McCown Construction, welcomed visitors and set the tone for this year’s jolly good theme, “British Gardens in Time.” The clock is cleverly set to 4 o’clock in honor of the official tea time in Great Britain, said Allison Copeland, who was in charge of the Tablescapes area surrounding Big Ben.

Copeland said she was amazed by “the number of hands and hours it took to put this together.” At the last minute, when one of her eight designers had to back out, Copeland herself filled in by creating a table devoted to the “Mad Hatter’s Tea Party,” complete with giant playing cards and her mother’s china. Pink bunny ears sticking out of the bushes symbolize the white rabbit and hint at the “incredible sense of humor” of the British, she said.

In the main tent, water features take center stage, literally, in the featured exhibit designed around the hospital’s steel gazebo, with double pools and gurgling fountains designed and installed by Josh Weatherford of Weatherford’s Fountain and Lawn in Mobile. Kent Broom is the show’s designer and landscape architect.

The featured exhibit is surrounded by landscaped gardens that serve as an inspiration to every person in attendance with a green thumb. Even non-gardeners might feel inspired to dig in the dirt after a visit to the festival.

Visitors will hear Bellingrath Gardens and Home’s elaborate display before seeing it. The soothing sounds of the waterfall help create the tropical paradise that is “A Trip to the British Virgin Islands.”

Nearby, Tommy Martiniere of Martiniere Landscape and Design of Fairhope has created “European Grandeur,” a display that one really has to see to believe. He created a massive table based on a photo he saw years ago of a similar one that had lettuce growing on it, so that people could literally pluck the leaves to make their own super-fresh salad. He had difficulty finding lettuces, so he planted the tabletop with herbs in varying heights and shades of green.

The table itself is 11 feet long and 6 feet wide and seats eight people. Martiniere made the top from aluminum. It’s held up by legs made from a recycled cedar tree. In addition to the plantings set into the tabletop, the table has a well down the center, where water flows continuously from one end to the other over smooth black rocks.

In the Floral Showcase, local designers created scenes imagined from some of the United Kingdom’s grandest residences. Not to be missed here is LeNae Denson’s interpretation of Highclere Castle, the home of the Duke of Carnarvon.

Denson, of Cleveland The Florist, fashioned a colorful rug of Gerber daisies. It impressed Anne Edwards, who traveled with the Miraflores Garden Club of Gulf Breeze, Fla., to see the festival. Edwards and about 16 other members of the club rented a Dream Catcher bus, she said, “and we bring a trailer for our purchases.”

“We try to come every year because it is the premier flower show, the best in the area,” she said, as she stood looking at the carpet of daisies. “We’re in awe of how they can get it all blooming at the exact same time.”

Joy Gardner, the featured artist for the festival, not only has the perfect name for an artist at a flower show; her abstract paintings in vivid colors were selling quickly, both at The Royal Gala on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, where her featured painting was displayed along with several others in a variety of sizes.

“Color is important to me,” she said, gesturing to her painting “Spring Will Come.” She was inspired to paint it “after the cold, damp, dreary winter we had,” when she saw the green and golden buds just waiting to break out on the branches of the trees on a trip to visit her daughter in Nashville. She said she’s also inspired just by walking around the festival and looking at all the blooms.

Outside, in the Gardener’s Galleria, vendors set up under individual white tents were doing a brisk business on the beautiful morning.

Gary Kreidler of Austin, Texas, and Bob Phillips of Indianapolis were selling fresh pussy willows and curly willow from a farm in northern Wisconsin. “They’re the first sign of spring up north,” said Kreidler, who was at last weekend’s Fairhope Arts and Crafts Festival, where he sold two-thirds of his inventory on the first day of that event. The pussy willows can be rooted, or they can air-dry in a vase and last for years, he added.

“We’re a destination,” said Phillips. “This is our fourth year” to participate in the Festival of Flowers.

One word of caution: The ground inside the tent is, in some places, slightly muddy. Rain boots, or at least tennis shoes, could be considered de rigueur footwear.

The festival will continue Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $14 at the gate; children 12 and under are free. Parking is free.

Proceeds from the Festival of Flowers will help upgrade infant security monitors and infant warmers in the Louise Robinson Moorer Women’s Center of Providence Hospital.

For more information, visit www.festivalofflowers.com, or call (251) 639-2050 or (877) 777-0529.