Longwood Gardens, 1

We spent a day, September 16th, at Longwood Gardens, outside of Philadelphia. We have seen many of the world's great gardens and rate Longwood certainly in the world-class range. It is a "show" garden although it rivals some of the great botanical gardens we have visited. It was begun, in a sense, by the local Peirce family, later generations of which collected a variety of tree specimens. Their collection was saved from development by one Pierre du Pont, one of the early 20th century titans of American industry, chairman of Du Pont, General Motors, and others. He and his wife Alice had seen some of the great gardens of France and Italy and resolved to emulate them on American soil, opening them to the public and providing for their perpetual maintenance. Now, a century later, the results are ever more spectacular. We did nearly everything except the meadow and forest district (see map below).

At the entrance, two young Monkey Puzzle trees...alas, we saw no more

Helpful map; click to enlarge

The rose garden was clearly on its down side, but still had great beauty

Butterflies and bees all around

In the topiary garden

Fountains foreplay

Now in the idea garden

The best of the scores of kitchen gardens we have seen; of course, it 
helps to see said gardens in the fall (harvest) rather than in the spring
(planting) as we often do in Europe

Tallest cornstalk ever...must have been 12 feet!

So tempting

The fountains at play

More like Vegas than Versailles

Now in the vast conservatory district; water plants

In the bonsai workshop

A respectable bonsai collection, though not as old as we
have seen elsewhere

Pomegranite harvest

Now in the bromeliad building

A courtyard in the midst of several conservatory buildings