Longwood Gardens

Last weekend, I decided to head out to Longwood Gardens, one of the premiere botanical gardens in the United States, which is conveniently located about thirty minutes from where I live. It was a good trip, despite the admission people seizing my pack lunch, having to avoid half the park due to a wine and jazz festival (we can't all afford a 40 dollar ticket), getting stuck in traffic for about an hour both directions, and a temperature spike (hottest day yet).

Let me start off by saying that Longwood is the Disney World of gardens.

They are so extensive they don't necessarily have to devote a particular garden to a specific plant collection type, but can present concept gardens including a homage to the color white, and the Silver Room in the Conservatory which showcases succulents and cacti:

(White never looked so good, eh?)

(And how about those succulents?)Actually, Longwood is so with it, I'm pretty sure that Disney World wants to be the Longwood of entertainment parks. Here's why

 

The gardens are extensive, arresting, immaculate and truly overwhelming. You can spend hours there, and lots of extra cash if you aren't paying attention. Plus, the gardens are so artfully designed and deftly maintained that even if you desire greatly to have existential crises about the disquieting opulence of the displays you are ultimately beaten down by the powerful beauty of this juggernaut (crises include, but not limited to: the suddenly concrete understanding that the super rich have no idea what our lives are like, whether the gardens are a simple display of power hidden behind beautiful plants, the ringing in your ears as you walk past fountains of "let them eat cake," and the suspicion that there is something sickening about how all us peons come to bask in the warmth of money).

 

There is no escape, there is NO escape, so just enjoy yourself. Suddenly you'll find yourself being swept away by the mesmerizing, changing carousel of greenhouse-prepped landscapes, mass plantings, and the powerful combination of well trained plants and beautiful containers. You'll find yourself saying "I'm really not that interested in roses, but that rose is the size of a dinner plate and I can't look away."

Dinner plate.

The real trick is to get the picture-taking out of your system when you enter each garden. Get your picture taking fix first, and then take some time to just be there. Otherwise you're going to miss a lot in your picture-taking frenzy. This is especially important in the Conservatory, and especially true in the Orchid Room in the Conservatory. Because, let's face it, you can't catch 'em all.
 

Although, you can catch some of them. Sigh. Orchids can't be denied.

If you are strapped for time, please just look at the pictures on Picasa, because really there is nothing to read in this post that can't be better summed up by those pictures. They aren't particularly spectacular or well-labeled, but I think they do nicely exemplify the major idea of this blog post, which is: You must go to Longwood Gardens before you die.

I don't care who you are. I don't care if you don't like plants or have horrible allergies, or are unable to walk or are a small child who gets bored easily (well, I do care, but those sorts of things shouldn't keep you away). If you have any kind of complication that makes you want to spend as little time as possible on your feet, just go to the Conservatory. It. is. worth. the. money (18$). and. time (two hours if you're moving fast).

The Conservatory:

Longwood Gardens: A brief history

Longwood Gardens is owned by the du Pont family. If you are thinking to yourself I think I have heard that name before, you are correct. You have heard this name before because that family owns the Du Pont corporation, a global chemical manufacturer that makes all kinds of famous stuff, including: nylon, teflon, kevlar, neoprene, and lycra. The Du Pont fortune began with the creation of explosives and expansion of the black powder market in the United States (you can make a lot of money selling stuff like that during wars: they supplied about half of the union troops with gunpowder). Buuuuuut hey were broken up in 1912 as part of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act (your American history starting to come back?). They then basically owned GM during its formative years until it was taken from them after another anti-trust probe, were essential in creating wartime merchandise during the second World War, and were even involved with the Manhattan project, building the plant where the radioactive materials used in the Abombs were refined. It was after WWII that they really began creating all sorts of useful polymers.

The Chime Tower:

Actually, they are a rather complex company. For example, they built all those nasty cfc producing fridges parents tell their children scary stories about, but were one of the first companies to stop making them once it came out that cfc's were actually depleting the ozone layer. They are also the largest corporate producer of air pollutants in the United States, but have one of the best track records of implementing pollution and energy reducing technologies. So I don't really know what to think of them. Like I don't really know what to think about topiary displays.

Tell you what, though, children LOVE these things.

 

Longwood Gardens:

What you need to know about this space is that it is very old. Like originally bought from William Penn old. Longwood was already on its way to becoming an arboretum by the late 1700's. It was bought by the du Pont family to keep the large collection of trees from being destroyed, and by the mid 1900s, many of the features recognizable at Longwood today had been designed, including the fountains and a large conservatory. Today Longwood is home to over 11,ooo different plants, forty different gardens, and one of the most recognizable greenhouse/conservatory structures in the world. It provides classes, has summer firework displays and fountain shows, hosts musical events and festivals of all kinds, does its own in house research, and has access to tons of money to ensure that even when times are tough, their gardens are an unparalleled tour de force.

 

This garden experience will pummel you.

As for what I am doing? The short answer is getting strong, destroying my clothing (garden work is uniquely tough on clothes, and for some reason I get especially dirty no matter the task) and accumulating information about Arisaema but also the aroids in general (wiki it if you're confused, but know that aroids are absolutely everywhere once you figure out what they are).

Current reading (which I recommend to those interested):

Aroids: Plants of the Arum Family by Deni Bown (second edition)

and a non-plant book:

An American Childhood by Annie Dillard, whom I love.

Adventure is out there.