After 30-ish years or so of visiting Longwood Gardens, this May marked the first year that my family and I had the grounds to ourselves. Well not exactly, but it sure seemed like it. There were a number of factors that contributed to my new-found, imaginary acquisition of the historic DuPont property. First, it was close to 95 degrees that day, though with beautiful crystal clear blue skies, and second, it was not a holiday, or a weekend.
In years past, we have practically always visited the gardens on Memorial Day weekend, which often brings floods of garden and fountain enthusiasts. However, even though it is crowded at Longwood, you usually don't notice it. That is the wonder of the garden landscape, allowing visitors to escape from the world into their own private spaces.
But on this day, Longwood Gardens would become all mine.
Longwood Gardens is located in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. The property, originally inhabited by the Lenni Lenape Indians, has had a rich history dating back to the 1700's. As it stands today the grounds were designed in the early 1900's, mainly at the hands of Pierre S. du Pont. The gardens are known for their festival of fountains, Italianate gardens, and magnificent Conservatory.
In 30 years of visiting the gardens, one comes to expect certain things, which to a new observer might be a magical discovery. To these seasoned visitors, the garden experience becomes something entirely different. One must look to discover new spots, subtleties, and details, that overwhelmed new visitors would most likely overlook. The garden has "rooms", palaces in fact, each with its own individual character and personality. The topiary and rose gardens feel like entering Alice's Wonderland, while the great fountain lawn feels like stepping straight into the palace of Versailles. The Italian water garden seems surreal in it's perfection, as if the ghosts of time are present here, content on never leaving paradise.
There is a section ( my favorite ) where the fountains are not running, and the blue tile is deteriorating with weeds poking their way through. In this spot, there are so many details, so much possibility for my mind to imagine what this place must have looked like in the early 1900's.
This year, we decided to explore the garden backwards; backwards for us, that is. It is amazing how taking a different route, and seeing things in an unexpected way can change the entire experience.
This year, I paid particular attention to the teaching garden, where you can view a wide variety of perennials, and get great ideas to apply to your own garden. The poppies and peonies were unbelievable.
And a great veggie garden....
Herb Garden....I loved the curls of the garlic scapes....
We then ventured out of the teaching area and started to make our way towards the conservatory.
Can you spot the monkey puzzle trees??
The Longwood conservatory is full of Tropical, Desert, and Mediterranean climates, along with rose, and hibiscus specimens, a beautiful indoor plant display, and outdoor water lily garden.
And my all time favorite highlight, is the orchid collection. Over the many years of visiting collection, I always secretly wished that I could have the orchid room all to myself, to pretend that it was all mine. This is by far the best, most extensive collection that I have seen in my garden travels.
Finally, we left the conservatory looking out regally at the landscape below, and made our way past the formal flower beds, down winding, natural wooded paths, to the Italian Water Garden.
I was interested to learn that this garden is a lesson in linear and spatial perspective. It was designed with the back pools fourteen feet longer so that when viewed from above the pools would all appear to be the same size.
Can you spot the waterfall steps??
Finally, the
day ended where most years it begins. This display felt to me like a black and white movie, completely
desaturated, but full of exciting texture and value. We exited the bright
wonderland, full of vibrant color, returning through the bluish gray,
monochromatic gates to the real world.
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