Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Longwood Gardens

Sunday was almost unbearably hot.  But I didn't know that it would be when I agreed to meet friends at Longwood Gardens, in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.  That was several weeks ago, and although I suspected that mid-July wouldn't be fun, I was hoping for cooler weather.  As it happened, the day was mostly overcast and there was a lovely intermittent breeze.  Without those, I would have melted, despite a wide-brimmed hat and my Ray Bans and a cool dress.

Longwood Gardens are what was once one of several old du Pont estates in the area.  It's over 1,000 acres set in rolling southeastern Pennsylvania countryside.  There are gorgeous formal gardens, but our focus this visit was the meadow.  It has recently been expanded and there are many new pieces of hardscaping  -  bridges and walkways and a nature center gallery.  With air conditioning, a bathroom, and two drinking fountains.  Just what was needed after hiking through the meadow.



There are so many flowers tucked into the meadow grasses.  Black-eyed susan, butterfly weed, blazing star, coneflower.  We admired the red-winged blackbirds balancing on the tops of the waving stems.  There was even a 'green roof' bluebird house!  How ecologically sound!





It was nice to get back to the lake at the bottom of the meadow and into the woods.  There's a tree house I'd kill for, and the Italian gardens with their fountains were so tempting!  I'm sorry I forgot to take photos of these.  You'll have to visit Longwood yourself, or at least look at their web site:  http://longwoodgardens.org .

Our friends were just coming home from a week long vacation at the Delaware shore, so we ended our visit with lunch at the 1906 Restaurant at Longwood Gardens.  Excellent!

This is cheating, but here are some photos I took when we were there in April 2013.  They always have such gorgeous borders.  In the spring, they're almost overwhelming.





6 comments:

  1. What a wonderful day! But then any day spent in the garden is pretty much guaranteed to be wonderful. I love that green roof birdhouse! So clever!

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    1. I'm glad Longwood is within reasonable reach for us. Because it's so big, we never get bored wandering around. I love the huge water lily leaves, big enough for a child to stand on! Have you ever seen those? Kennett Square, Oxford, West Grove, Landenberg, Rising Sun - that area is where both sides of my family are from and where most of my extended family still live. When we go to Longwood, I always feel a bit like I'm home, a bit closer to my much missed parents.

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    2. I have only ever seen photos of the huge ones. The largest I have seen were a little bigger than dinner plates, large enough for a bird to stand on but not a child. Maybe one day I will see the really huge ones!

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    3. I hope you get to see them in person some day, too. They're amazing! If you goggle 'Amazon lily pads', you can see some photos with babies or women standing or lying on them. Nature is astonishing.

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  2. What a great place to visit, yet again I'm hoping someone will invent a transporter gadget! Those tulips look especially fab.

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    1. Maybe we could do one of those 'kick starter' things to raise money to develop a transporter! Then you could come share these things with us and we could come back to Scotland and see the things you want us to see!

      The tulips and all the plants are magnificent. Never a weed or brown leaf to be seen. Something new in every season, as we gardeners know.

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