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

Scenes From Pennsylvania Dutch Country

September 15th found us driving through Pennsylvania "Dutch" Country. Yes, it's about as Dutch as sauerkraut. I'm not sure what drives an interest in these things, all the peculiarities, anachronisms, curiosities, etc., but there we were, taking it all in, learning about the differences between the Amish and the Mennonites, etc. We had driven these parts before, in 1968, en route to a memorable summer in New Haven, CT. We still have the souvenir hex sign we purchased then. Most of the pix are by Vicki.

Street scene

Big-time agricultural country; family farms

Not exactly the old-fashioned way

Among the dozens of one-room school houses...educational
opportunities among the sects and cults are generally pretty limited...

Turnpike cruisers

Mennonite most likely, judging from the heart-shaped head-gear

Tour bus

Seriously

High point of the visit

We considered spending the night, but had reservations elsewhere

Huge barns for drying tobacco leaves

Now we are in Lancaster, to visit the famous Central Market

Mennonite cheese shoppe

Huge old 19th century building, impressive vaulting

Row housing in the city

We love the stone construction one sees increasingly traveling north;
especially Vicki, who in her Pennsylvania childhood years lived in a
house reconstructed from a stone barn

A fun day

PS [from the Sherouse Family Digital Archives]...Vicki's Pennsylvania
childhood home...Unity, near Pittsburgh