Longwood Conservatory

Longwood Gardens outside Philadelphia is a former Dupont estate.  It consists of a thousand

acres of outdoor gardens and woods and 16 conservatories and greenhouses open to the public. 

 There are many more working greenhouses behind these.

I took a lot of pictures of many flowers when I was at Longwood last week.  I think many

people on my mailing list would tire of flowers, but I also know that a number of people ask

me for more pictures.  So I am going to send out many more pictures to a restricted list,

and you are on the list.  If you are not interested, just delete.

The main Conservatory is a huge rectangular room.  Above you can see lavender

Canterbury Bells and Guzmania at the front, the 2 Coleus Trees and Broom flowers in back.

Foreground is yellow Stock, decorative grass, and begonias.  In the back are white

Marguerite Daisies, blue Forget-Me-Nots, and orange Guzmania.

The two "trees" are coleus plants.  It took three years to train them into this shape.  All leaves

and branches were pinched off except in the middle and at the top, where they were

encouraged to grow profusely.  They are currently training other colors of coleus.

The other flowers are yellow Broom, yellow Marigolds, and the magnificent red

Towers of Jewels / Echium.

On the opposite side of the Conservatory was an aisle lined with pink Zonal Geraniums,

ferns, white Oriental Lilies, and pink Hybrid Azaleas in the pots.

Colorful Guzmania plants.

Yellow Broom, lavender Spurflower / Plectranthus, and dark blue Canterbury Bells

These are Ranunculus  /  Persian Buttercups  /  Asian Buttercups.

They are thick, tight masses of colorful petals and 8-12 inches high.

Ranunculus  /  Persian Buttercups would be one of my top choices for a Spring

Garden if I still had one.  They are very hardy.

Ranunculus  /  Persian Buttercup

Ranunculus  /  Persian Buttercup

Azaleas have always grown on bushes 2-4 feet high.  But this is a new hybrid Azalea,

which is only about 8 inches high and is perfect for pots and ground cover.

Here is the hybrid Azalea used as ground cover.

Bed of Ranunculus  /  Persian Buttercups

Broom Flower comes in many varieties and sizes.  If you have traveled in England or

Scotland, you know it grows wild all along the highways.

Euryops was a new flower to me.  It was used extensively throughout the conservatory.

It comes from South Africa and has dark green foliage and bright yellow flowers.

It looks much like a daisy.

A pot of Euryops.  There is another variety with grey leaves, but I found it less

attractive and less prolific in blooms.

Here we are right inside the front door looking through the Conservatory and toward

Exhibition Hall A with its hanging baskets of blue Hydrangeas.  Easter Lilies line both

side of the path here.

Yellow Stock Flowers.  This is an old garden standby, but a new variety with very thick

flowers and strong stems.  It comes in many colors.

White Oriental Lilies.  These are huge, 9-10 inches across. In the morning the buds

were tightly closed, and then the heat and light led them to open fully in the afternoon.

White Marguerite Daisies covered bushes all around.

White Marguerite Daisies.

Spurflower  /  Plectranthus.  The Variety is "Mona Lavender."

Dark Blue Canterbury Bells behind.

Easter Lilies were the centerpiece on the day I arrived.

Easter Lilies

I have known Anthuriums for many years, but they were "florist flowers" and died

soon after you got them.  Now they have been hybridized in a number of colors, sizes,

and shapes, and were used extensively in the Conservatory.

These are the "Pandola" variety of Anthuriums.  They comes in pale pink,

sometimes with a touch of white and/or green.

Pandola Anthuriums.  Gorgeous.

Pure White Anthuriums

Bright red, shiny Anthuriums

Red Towers of Jewels  /  Echium
These plants grow naturally only on one place on earth - the Island of Tenerife in the
Canary Islands.  But they are so dramatic and beautiful that gradually now large
conservatories all over the world have begun growing them.

Red Towers of Jewels

Close-up of blossoms on Red Tower of Jewels

Lavender, Pink, and Dark Blue Canterbury Bells / Campanula, with yellow Broom

"Champion Pro Dark Blue Canterbury Bells"

"Champion Pro Dark Blue Canterbury Bells."  They are amazingly prolific.

"Champion Pro Dark Blue Canterbury Bells"

"Champion Pro Pink Canterbury Bells"

Cascades of "Champion Pro Pink Canterbury Bells."

Beautiful bell shapes on Pink Canterbury Bells

Just inside the front doors there are always two bushes of Gardenias
covered with blossoms.


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Tulips at Longwood

For the next six weeks, tulips and daffodils will be the star attractions at

Longwood Gardens.  More than 240,000 bulbs were planted by volunteers last fall.

There are lots of other flowers as well.  I was at the Gardens last week.

Above are some of the daffodils; below are some of the tulips.

These orange streaked tulips are in the Ideas Garden, which consist of almost 100 square

beds of different varieties of tulips and daffodils, so visitors can get an idea of the

varieties they might like to plant at home.  The color is riotous.

The Ideas Garden with tulips and daffodils and in the background a glimpse of

Magnolia Grove, with dozens of different varieties of magnolia trees.

The Easter Egg Bed with lots of pastel colors.

Some of the most elegant tulips are these lavender and white, an early variety

with short stems.

Yellow Tulips are about as cheerful a flower as you can find, and there are yellows

ranging from lemon yellow to canary yellow to egg-yolk yellow to yellow-orange.

This type of tulip is called a "Taper Tulip" because they look like flickering flames.

Daffodils mingle with the tulips, and every possible combination of colors between petals

and trumpet can be found - white, yellow, orange, red, small, large, etc.

From one corner of the Idea Garden to the other.

Chalice Tulips open up like a cup, their petals opening out, not upward.

Parrot Tulips are large and have very frilly petals; they look very exotic.

As a photographer, I shoot some flowers with the sun ON them, and others with the sun

shining THROUGH them.  The reults are very different.  As you can see, these pink

tulips have the sun shining THROUGH them and the petals become transparent.

Yellow Daffodils with Large Orange Trumpet

Horticulturalists have been able to breed Double Tulips, which have two or three rings

of petals, rather than just one.  They are large and look almost like peonies.

These Pink Double Tulips are some of the most beautiful doubles, I think.

"Cotton Candy Tulips."  These are both double (two rings of petals) and also two-toned,

pale cream and peach.

A large raised bed of primarily pink and red tulips.  These are late tulips with very tall

strong stems.  They start blooming 2-3 weeks after the Early Tulips.

The other major display area for tulips at Longwood is the Garden Walk, a broad sidewalk

as long as a football field lined on either side with large beds of primarily tulips.  In

the background here are two Flowering Dogwood trees.  The tulip beds begin with deep

purple and then gradually change to lavender and pink, then beds of red and orange, then

pale orange and yellow, and finally all white beds.

Frilled Purple Tulips

A bed of pink and white tulips leading up to the Fountain Plaza.

White Daffodils with White Trumpets

Deep Purple Tulips

Hot Red Tulips

Idea Garden Beds

 Pink Tulips by the Fountain

Orange and Yellow Early Tulips

Tulips in a Variety of Colors

Double Yellow Tulips, which are so big and heavy that their stems cannot hold them up.

Snapdragons and Daffodils in the All White Section

Open-Cup Orange Tulips

The Red and Orange Section of the Garden Walk

The Yellow section of the Garden Walk; there are also yellow Wallflowers and
Pansies on the right side.

Cream Colored Daffodils with large yellow trumpets.

Red and Orange Section of the Garden Walk

A quite corner to sit in the Idea Garden by the Forsythia Hedge

Bed of Purple Tulips and Flowering White Dogwood Trees

Large Double Pink Tulips with light pink edges.

Variegated Orange Tulips; notice, their petals are different from Tapers.

Pink and Green Parrot Tulips

Yellow Parrot Tulips with flashes of red



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