Today I visited one of the premier public gardens in the country: Longwood Gardens outside of Philadelphia. Pierre S. DuPont purchased the initial property in 1909 to save a specimen stand of trees from being cut. He developed his gardens between then and his death in 1954. As he had been childless, he established a trust consisting of the Longwood estate and funds to provide for its upkeep. DuPont designed most of the gardens and other features himself. He had been disappointed with a landscape designer he had employed to design another of his properties in 1905, and he taught himself to do his own design and implementation.
The house on the property was originally a farmhouse. DuPont expanded it and added a conservatory and a separate building for use as his library. This was not his primary residence, so he did not lavish much attention on the house. The major structure is a separate, huge conservatory that covers at least 50 acres. Inside the conservatory are greenhouses and various rooms with different floral or landscape themes. One that I particularly liked is the Silver Garden, which consists of plants that are primarily silver, gray or white. I have included a series of photos from this room along with others from Longwood Gardens on the Miscellany page. Here is one example from the room:
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| Small Tree in Silver Garden |
Pierre DuPont's original plan emphasized structured gardens, concrete, mechanized fountains, and natural wooded areas. The foundation that runs the gardens has made changes over the past 50 years, but has retained DuPont's original plan. One thing interesting about the estate is the absence of recreational structures such as swimming pools, horse stables, tennis courts or bowling alleys. He and his wife entertained, but the emphasis was on theatre and music. Longwood had a custom-made concert Steinway piano and a pipe organ that is still played today. The property has an outdoor theatre that was and is used for both stage performances and fountain shows. He designed and developed an Italian water garden from 1925 to 1927 based on a garden he and his wife had seen in Europe. Below is a detail from the water garden. In order to provide the correct perspective for viewing, the far pool is 14 feet longer than the near pool. His design work included working out the hydraulics for the various water spouts in the fountains. Two more views of the Italian Water Garden are on the Miscellany page.
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| Detail of Longwood Italian Water Garden |
Though DuPont emphasized landscape design and use of water features, the foundation has made some changes the give Longwood Gardens more of a botancal-garden feel. For example, there are five lily ponds in the Conservatory and they hold a wide variety of waterlilies, both in size and flower color. Varietal marking is excellent. Another addition is an Idea Garden that incorporates new varieties of annuals, perennials, grasses, ground covers, vines, vegetables and berries.
The gardens are well worth a visit. I spent three hours on a somewhat rushed look. If my legs could have handled it, I could have spent twice that time and not seen everything.
More pictures of Longwood Gardens are on the Miscellany page.
Mileage: 117. Cumulative mileage: 2,132.
