BOSTON – Ah, the sweet smell of spring.

As soon as you walk through the doors of the Bayside Exposition Center, it hits you like the most intoxicating perfume. Earthy mulch, delicate roses and fragrant hyacinths lure you into the New England Spring Flower Show. And for a little while, anyway, you forget the mud-scented world outside.

For the past five months, the region has been covered in a blanket of white, which makes the verdant indoor landscapes that much more vivid. The smells seem more heady, the exhibits a little more green. This year, perhaps more than in years past, a trip to the flower show feels like a vacation for the senses.

Exhibitors have followed the theme, “The Garden Journey,” literally and figuratively, turning the cavernous building into an oasis. Paths, doorways and streams lead visitors through each of the gardens, but in many cases, the journey is spiritual.

“The garden has the ability to transport us to magical places, far away from our everyday lives,” writes one exhibitor.

And it’s true. You don’t have to travel to India or Asia for a touch of the exotic, as the gardeners showed. One exhibitor took a pergola, set up a small table and silk-covered floor pillows, and turned a shady corner into an open-air tearoom. In another garden, a stone path led to a small pagoda of sorts that housed a bubbling hot tub.

A pagoda-enclosed Jacuzzi may not fit your budget or your taste, but the message behind it is relevant to every home gardener – don’t be afraid to experiment with outdoor “rooms.” Structural elements such as pergolas and patios bring our traditional indoor activities outdoors. Summer in New England is short enough, so why not take advantage of it by setting up an outdoor dining room surrounded by flowers and shrubs? Or simply set up a cafe table and chairs overlooking the garden, where you can enjoy a cup of coffee in the morning.

Behind each of the intricate gardens lies a simple lesson. If you want to cover your back yard with various strains of American holly, such as the exhibit by Bartlett Tree Expert Co. of Newton, Mass., that’s fine. But there’s no need to overhaul your existing landscape. The key is to incorporate elements that appeal to you – a holly bush here, a candle lantern there.

Some of the best ideas at the flower show come in small packages. The American Institute of Floral Designers presents an indoor-outdoor scene. Outside, icicles hung from the roof of a garden shed, while daffodils poked out from the snow-covered ground. Inside the shed, preparations for spring were under way – topiaries awaited warmer weather and an old metal cafe chair got a new life as a planter – the cushion had been removed, and in its place, a moss-filled basket held sedum, leeks and veronica in a bull’s-eye pattern.

In “The Journey of the Farm to the Garden,” Fine Garden Art presents an edible feast of ideas that doesn’t require a farm-size tract of land to replicate. Tiny heads of lettuce grow in weathered wooden crates, while coffee plants pop out of a coffee can and tea plants grow from tea tins. So much for the notion that you can’t grow vegetables in a container garden.

This year’s showstopper exhibit is something you can’t replicate at home, however, unless you have a fleet of gardeners and designers at your disposal. Mosaiculture International Montreal has created a towering phoenix topiary crafted from more than 400 plants per square yard. It is a structure of mythic proportions, meant to serve as a preview for Montreal’s international exhibition of similar horticultural sculptures.

On a smaller scale, brides-to-be will enjoy the replica of Jacqueline Kennedy’s wedding bouquet. For the event, Winston Flowers of Boston and the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum have teamed up to re-create the classic arrangement of white and pink spray orchids and gardenias. It marks the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy nuptials.

Large or small, there’s plenty of inspiration to be found at the New England Spring Flower Show. Just follow your nose and let the sweet smells of spring envelop you.

The New England Spring Flower Show runs through March 23 at the Bayside Exposition Center in Boston. Hours are 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets cost $16 on weekdays, $18 on weekends, and $7 for children 4 to 12 years old, children under 4 are admitted free. On-site parking is available and costs $12 per vehicle. For more information, visit www.masshort.org.