This article by Pat Summers was published in U.S. 1 Newspaper on September 1, 1999. All rights reserved.
Picture this: Trees from which triangular flower clusters hang, resembling from a distance bunches of lavender, purple, and white grapes. This is a garden filled with aromatic Japanese wisteria -- a vigorous twining vine that has been trained into tiered tree-forms supported by upright poles. Around the "wisteria trees," moss ground cover is being cultivated, and small signs explain why and how.
In the conservatory, a hanging fern, grown since the 1950s to almost 500 pounds and more than nine feet in diameter, is now displayed in a steel-reinforced basket that shores up its original site. A bonsai room includes diminutive evergreen, ginko, and flowering trees, some of which "began training" more than 100 years ago. Only gradualists and those with detail orientations need apply to become bonsai gardeners -- although anyone can appreciate this ancient art of miniaturizing trees and bushes by trimming both their roots and aerial parts to make, and maintain, tiny versions in the same planter.
Outside again, spray arises in choreographed harmony, while water moves down hills and under bridges in the Italian water gardens, boasting six large and twelve small, blue-tiled pools. This scene, nestled in greenery of all sorts, is only one of the fountain areas at Longwood Gardens, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Located 30 miles west of Philadelphia, and 12 miles north of Wilmington, Delaware, in the Brandywine Valley, this 1,050-acre wonderland is open every day of the year and worth visiting on any of them.
For once, the owners' hyperbole may be warranted, in the case of Longwood's self-description: "the world's premier horticultural display garden." Among other things, it offers "gardens, woodlands, and meadows; 20 outdoor gardens; 20 indoor gardens within four acres of heated greenhouses; 11,000 different types of plants; spectacular fountains" and on and on. It's all true. That Longwood attracts more than 900,000 visitors can come as no surprise.
Industrialist Pierre S. du Pont (1870-1954), chair of the DuPont and General Motors companies, created Longwood Gardens after buying the property in 1906 to save endangered trees. On his death, he left the site to the public for "exhibition, instruction, education, and enjoyment." Today Longwood Gardens is a private, not-for-profit organization whose primary funding comes from its endowment, admission income, and the shop. More than 50 gardeners are among its 400 employees -- and it shows.
Two basic, self-guided walking tours -- or any parts of them -- are possible at Longwood Gardens: the outdoor tour, divided into east and west loops; and the conservatory tour through acres of indoor gardens and displays. A summertime-only waterlily display is located in a protected courtyard of a building. It features aquatic plants, both day and night-blooming, from all over the world.
Outdoors, the flower garden walk and fountain go back to 1907, and feature a mix of annual and perennial flowers, spring bulbs, woody shrubs, and ornamental grasses. Discreet signs identify everything, although in the interests of the whole blooming gestalt they can also be ignored. Peirce's Park, the once-threatened native and exotic tree collection, now includes trees approaching 200 years of age. A lake area is habitat both to bald-cypresses, bright seasonal flowers, and a diversity of animals, including Canada geese, frogs, and raccoon.
The wisteria garden room, enclosed by arborvitaes, leads to a semi-secret peony garden room where shrubby hybrid tree peonies bloom each May. Other flowers extend the bloom time, and teak benches make it easy to sit and enjoy the scene. A circular rose arbor that's covered with pink roses in June also serves as one of the outdoor stage areas for the performing artists who make scheduled appearances at Longwood Gardens. Educational displays of 11 different plant groups, from annual flowers through ground covers to vegetables, are featured in the "idea garden" for home gardeners.
And on and on, through a five-acre fountain garden, with displays of fountain jets, one of which rises 130 feet, and all of which require recirculation of 10,000 gallons of water each minute. Both "regular" and "special" daytime fountain displays are scheduled, as are illuminated evening displays and fireworks and fountain events several times during the summer season.
Other outdoor attractions include a hillside garden, a conifer knoll that includes four giant sequoias, a heaths and heathers hillside (say that 10 times, without inhaling), and a traditional rose garden. A crisp topiary garden caps the tour of the formal outdoor areas with nearly 50 specimens clipped into geometric and other shapes. Some go back to the mid-'30s, while others were added in the late '50s.
A forest walk and a meadow complete the outdoor attractions. But attention must also be paid to Longwood's one and a half allees. The first, two rows of copper beeches that line a roadway, includes one tree that was flown in by helicopter for planting to replace an ailing one. Its prognosis in May, as it was being checked by groundsmen: so far, so good. The half allee, soon to be whole once again, is a line of princess trees that dress in lavender blossoms in the spring. Longwood gardeners are growing the trees to replace the row that died out.
We pause for a special announcement that will surprise and please: Longwood is clean -- pristine, in fact. It is not only lovely, but also litter free. Eating and drinking are allowed only in designated places, like the restaurant or the picnic area, and you get the feeling the rule is enforced. No smoking, no eating, no drinking -- and that means Longwood Gardens is one of the few remaining places in the nation where people must operate without clutching a coffee cup, soda, or a snack. Amazingly, everyone we saw managed to do it; with none of the usual distractions, they could concentrate on the gardens. Last piece of good news: no cell phones. Can it last?
On to the conservatory. One after another, its series of rooms and display areas amaze the visitor, in winter giving heart that spring will in fact come; and in other seasons, enriching the bounty of growing things. There's something about pillared glass houses and multi-colored plants and water reflecting over sunken marble floors. Imagine such a place in winter, filled with vivid poinsettias and other seasonal plants. Spring can star delphiniums in unimaginable hues and other showy flowers.
The conservatory self-guided tour leads through the espaliered fruit area, where the nectarines and grapes du Pont favored are still grown out of season through a centuries-old system. To conserve space, nectarine trees are trained flat against wire frames; when a plant is so pruned and supported by a frame or wall, it is called an "espalier." The orchid room displays the best of Longwood's 2,000 different types, frequently replaced from five orchid growing houses to be in peak blooming and scenting condition. They are so lusciously beautiful, they look unreal.
The tropical terrace, palm house, and fern passageway speak for themselves, while the cascade garden houses bromeliads and epiphytic plants (those that grow on and use other plants), and the silver garden displays plants that have adapted to dry, arid desert regions. Their silver-colored foliage reflects light, their succulent leaves and stems store water, and hairs, spines and cupped leaves also facilitate survival. Twenty different banana types are grown at Longwood, from 30-foot high specimens to dwarf types grown in containers. For visitors six to nine years old, there's a hands-on children's garden, and kids will also be taken with the insect-catching plants displayed in alcoves of the fern passage.
Since "Gardens" does not explicitly say it, any story about Longwood Gardens should include reference to the myriad special events there. Some 800 horticultural and performing arts events are offered each year, including gardening demonstrations and flower shows, organ concerts and musical theater, summer fireworks and fountain displays. The extensive educational program encompasses horticultural career training and internships. The Terrace Restaurant offers full-service and cafeteria options; savor the attentive service, bread baked in clay pots, and view from the porch, if not extraordinary food. The obligatory gift shop sells garden accessories and tools of all sizes, as well as books and plants. All that -- and plentiful, clean restrooms.
Not that they are needed, because a visit on any day is a standout, but after "Festival of Fountains" through Labor Day, "GardenFest" in September, and "Autumn's Colors" in October, the upcoming events include "Celebrating Japan," the Chrysanthemum Festival, from October 23 to November 21. Visiting Japanese artisans will make chrysanthemum dolls, and cooking demonstrations, martial arts performances, and tea ceremonies are planned. With thousands of poinsettias and other seasonal plants, daily concerts, 400,000 tree lights, and dancing fountains, Longwood celebrates the Christmas season from November 25 to January 2.
As if all this weren't enough, Longwood Gardens has an amazing website: www.longwoodgardens.org. Believe it or not, it includes "What's in Bloom" throughout the place for the current week and an exhaustive schedule of events for months at a time. Best of all, though, is the virtual tour that a stay-at-home visitor can take. Beautiful photographs precede specifics about "noteworthy plants" and brief background information on each possible site.
The only hazard of a visit to Longwood Gardens: you start to think its know-how or its results will rub off onto you. But it won't. You cannot be what you are not, and you cannot have what they do: scores of garden specialists on staff, apparently limitless money, a glittering garden reputation to uphold. So just go there and enjoy the place, tremendously. Then come back home to your little plot of ground and "bloom where you're planted."
-- Pat Summers