The city's 600 community gardens are sublime sanctuaries for many of us. A replica of one of these havens will line the 35th St. aisle as one of the specialty gardens featured in the show.

"We picked plant material that would be street-friendly in terms of their size," says Peter Gustafson of Ireland Gannon Associates, "and have a good survivability in an urban environment, where you may not get as much water as you do in a suburban or rural environment.

"You have different issues with the plant-scapes going on in the city," he adds. "You can't have a particularly large tree. You want a tree that's got a determinant height, that's not going to keep growing like the big oaks and the big maples in Central Park."

Weeping crab apples, oak-leaf hollies, magnolias and PJM rhododendrons make up the Macy's model.

"There's also going to be things like tulips and daffodils for color," Gustafson says. "I would choose every one of those items for an urban landscape because of all those parameters. All of them are relatively tolerant and tough."

Perennials, which return for several seasons, were also planted. They include hostas, astilbes, Asiatic lilies and liriopes.

An aluminum fence will guard the garden, much like the wrought-iron gates that surround neighborhood nurseries. Park benches and bags of mulch will add to the final effect.

"We're going to have a wheelbarrow, shovels and tools so when people walk by they'll know what it is," Gustafson says.

Macy's shoppers aren't going to be the only ones to benefit from the beauty of the garden. It will be re-created as a gift to the Saratoga branch of the Brooklyn Public Library on April 27.

Macy's volunteers and Ireland Gannon Nurseries have teamed with Green Branches, a group that professionally designs gardens in neglected spots attached to libraries in underserved neighborhoods.

The greenery may differ slightly from that in the Flower Show, based on what will fit and flourish at the Saratoga branch, but it'll bring just as much pleasure to passersby.