Longwood Gardens

by | Nov 2, 2021 | Garden, Travel, USA Travel

I’ve long wanted to visit Longwood Gardens, one of the most well-known gardens on the US east coast famous for its water features and formal gardens. Since we would be driving (relatively) nearby—and we didn’t have a dog with us—we decided to finally visit on our return from New England.

We arrived a few minutes before their 10am opening and got in line for tickets. After a brief issue with their staffed credit card machines we obtained our tickets from the automated kiosk and made our way into the gardens.

Our first stop was for the Open Air Theatre Fountains.

Open Air Theatre fountain show

Next we headed toward the greenhouse / exhibition hall where we admired so many unique orchids.

"Green Wall" to hide the bathrooms

orchids  orchid

This area also included an internal view of the organ pipes along with interactive buttons to play the organ.

organ insides

And my favorite – the famous water garden courtyard. The overcast sky was lucky for us because the night-blooming lilies were still open alongside the day-blooming specimens.

Waterlily Garden

Waterlily Garden

At 11:15a the Main Fountain performance took place, which was quite impressive.

Main Fountain Garden

Main Fountain Garden

Once the performance was complete we made our way around the formal gardens, then up to the trial and kitchen gardens. As luck would have it we were at the Chimes Tower right at noon.

Chimes Tower and waterfall

Here’s a compilation video of all the fountains and music.

 

We stopped at the cafe for a quick lunch, then made our way through the colorful Flower Garden Walk.

me amongst the flowers

Flower Garden Walk

Flower Garden Walk

Making sure to cover all corners of the property, we then looped through the Italian water garden and eventually into the Peirce-du Pont House.

Italian Water Garden

Peirce-du Pont House

Facing a 7 hour drive we couldn’t stay much later, so after about 4 hours of exploration we left Longwood. It was well worth the cost, these are truly beautiful gardens. On a future trip I might consider packing a lunch, as there are numerous spots where one could picnic.

Our Itinerary

2024 Trips

San Diego, CA (Jan)
Sarasota, FL (Feb)
Madrid, Spain (Mar)
Valencia, Spain (Mar+Apr)
Palma, Mallorca (Apr)
Croatia (May)
Long Island, NY (July)
Faroe Islands (Aug)
London, UK (Sept)
Bari, Italy (Sept)
Rome, Italy (Oct)
Frankfurt, Germany (Oct)
Grand Rapids, MI (Nov)
London, UK (Dec)
Manchester, UK (Dec)

2022 Trips

Florida (Feb)
NC Mountains (Apr)
Washington DC (Apr)
Valencia, Spain (May)
Hilton Head, SC (May)
Pacific NW (Jun)
Long Island (Jul)
Florida (Sept)
Chicago (Sept)
Poland (Sept)
NC Mountains (Nov)
Euro Xmas Markets (Dec)