Concetta and I spent nearly the whole day in paradise, a place called Longwood Gardens in Kennett, Pennsylvania. The place was big -- REALLY BIG. To cover it, we walked over 14,000 steps and took dozens and dozens of photos. Before yesterday we had never heard of the place, but when our camp host told us that he wouldn't be running the van into Philadelphia until Wednesday for his advertised daily tour, we had to come up with something else to do today. That's when the camp host suggested the gardens, and the rest is history.
"Here's what Wikipedia says about the gardens: "Longwood Gardens has a long and varied history. For thousands of years, the native Lenni Lenape tribe fished its streams, hunted its forests, and planted its fields. Evidence of the tribe's existence is found in quartz spear points that have been discovered on and around the property and can be found on display in the Peirce-du Pont House on the Longwood Gardens property."
"In 1700, a Quaker farmer named George Peirce purchased 402 acres of this English-claimed land from William Penn’s commissioners. George’s son Joshua cleared and farmed the land and in 1730 he built the brick farmhouse that, enlarged, still stands today. In 1798, Joshua’s twin grandsons Samuel and Joshua, who had inherited the farm, actively pursued an interest in natural history and began planting an arboretum that eventually covered 15 acres. The collection included specimens that they collected from the wild as well as plants acquired from some of the region’s leading botanists."
"By 1850, the arboretum boasted one of the finest collections of trees in the nation and had become a place for the locals to gather outdoors – a new concept that was sweeping America at the time. Community picnics and socials were held at Peirce's Park in the mid to late 19th century."
"As the 19th century rolled into the 20th, the family’s heirs lost interest in the property and allowed the arboretum to deteriorate. The farm passed out of the family through several hands in quick succession, and a lumber mill operator was about to cut down the trees for timber in early 1906. This threat moved Pierre S. du Pont, American entrepreneur, businessman, philanthropist, and member of the prominent du Pont family to take action."
"The development of Longwood as a public garden began in the 1800s with the Peirce family’s arboretum. Joshua and Samuel Peirce collected many native and exotic trees, which they planted in straight rows on land east of their farmhouse. This area became known as Peirce’s Park toward the end of the 19th century. Visitors to Longwood Gardens today still enjoy Peirce’s Park, which is now punctuated by the Sylvan Fountain, added by Pierre S. du Pont in 1925-27."
"On July 20, 1906, 36-year-old du Pont purchased the farm primarily to preserve the trees. He wasn’t planning to create Longwood Gardens, but within a few years, his desire to make it a place where he could entertain his friends transformed a simple country farm into one of the country’s leading horticultural display gardens. After Pierre S. du Pont purchased the property, he began developing the outdoor gardens further, adding the 600-foot long Flower Garden Walk in 1907. The Flower Garden Walk features a pool known as the Round Fountain at the intersection of the main paths. Its simple jet of water was Longwood’s first fountain."
"In 1914, Pierre S. du Pont added the Open Air Theatre after visits to the Villa Gori in Siena, Italy, provided inspiration."
"From 1925-27 Pierre designed and constructed the Italian Water Garden on a site northeast of Longwood’s Large Lake, after gaining inspiration from a visit to the Villa Gamberaia, near Florence, Italy."
"In 1928, Pierre began adding fountains to a garden he had begun developing in 1921. This space, directly south of the Conservatory, would become Mr. du Pont’s most ambitious project—the 5-acre Main Fountain Garden. The Main Fountain Garden "combines Italianate ornamentation and French grandeur with World’s Fair showmanship. Like other great fountains, it is an engineering tour de force using the latest technology of the time. The Main Fountain Garden debuted to the public in 1931 and was the last major project in the Gardens during Pierre’s life."
"Longwood’s first conservatory was built in 1914 when Pierre S. du Pont added an L-shaped extension to the original Peirce farmhouse, doubling its size. A conservatory connected the old and new wings."
"Longwood's second and largest conservatory, opened in 1921, is one of the world's great greenhouse structures. The conservatory alone is home to 4,600 types of plants and trees. Since its original construction began in 1919, it has undergone expansions and renovations."
"The Gardens also has extensive educational programs including a tuition-free two-year school of professional horticulture, a graduate program, and extensive internships. It hosts hundreds of horticultural and performing arts events each year, from flower shows, gardening demonstrations, courses, and children's programs to concerts, organ and carillon recitals, musical theater, fountain shows, and fireworks displays. It also hosts an extensive Christmas light display during the holiday season."
"The Gardens have attracted more than 1 million visitors a year since 2012. Plans for growth and expansion for the next four decades began in 2010 with the hiring of West 8, a Dutch landscape architecture and urban planning firm with headquarters in Rotterdam and an office in New York City. The founder of West 8, Adriaan Geuze, stated their mission is: 'to celebrate Longwood, enjoy it, keep it, preserve it, while asking how it could function as a spectacular place for larger groups of people in the 21st century.'"
"The comprehensive Longwood plan is now complete and the first major project in the plan, the revitalization of the Main Fountain Garden, began in 2014 (see work ongoing photo right)."
We encountered only one mystery today that remains inexplicable. When we programmed the GPS to take us to Longwood this morning about 10:00 a.m. it took us in such a circuitous route that forty-five minutes had elapsed before we rolled into the parking lot, found a flat spot, and turned the key off. This afternoon, when we programmed the return trip it took us precisely fifteen minutes to come back!!!
We did get to see some very untamed and wild country on our outbound trip, including some narrow roads that had me breathing a sigh of relief when we didn't encounter any RVs coming the other way. But the inbound trip looked very much like a shortened version of yesterday's initial trip to the KOA camp.
Where the GPS came up with two different routes for the same trip will probably remain a mystery for all time, and goodness knows she's not talking.
So what, I'm sure you're thinking, is so good about 400 plus acres of gardens, greenhouses, and conservatories? Most people, you'll probably agree, would run out of energy long before they run out of things to see.
Well, it's like this. We been wanting to visit an arboretum or garden for this entire vacation. We've now been on the road for 46 days and at least half that time all we've seen are gray skies and sodden landscapes. Today, it was just such a pleasure to see brightly-colored flowers backed by azure blue skies, that it was simply intoxicating. It was just a PERFECT garden day!
In fact, by the end of the afternoon we found ourselves wishing that we lived locally so we could join the Friends of Longwood Gardens and spend some complacent hours exploring every nook and cranny of the grounds, or maybe even volunteering. There were definitely parts of the estate that we never saw today, though we really tried to walk as much of it as possible. The conservatories and green houses alone took up our entire afternoon.
The bottom line is this: if you ever get within a hundred miles of Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania, make sure you drop what you're doing and go see it. Spend the entire day. They have food and drink available, so you don't need your own RV to survive. Walk the garden paths, smell the flowers, and find a nice shady bench and reflect on the beauty that still exists in this world. And while you're doing that, we wish you Happy Travels.
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