Garden Visit: Two Days in One Week at Longwood Gardens

Last week was my lucky week: I had both a concert and a class at Longwood Gardens. This gave me two opportunities to explore their gardens in peak spring bloom.

The concert was originally supposed to be last October. I had gotten tickets to see pianist André Watts for my mom’s birthday. He’s my mom’s favorite pianist so we try to get tickets to see him when he is in the area. We had only seen him play at the Kimmel Center with the Philadelphia Orchestra before, not on his own and in such a lovely setting, so we were looking forward to it. Unfortunately, the October concert was postponed due to an injury. It was rescheduled for January. Well, we all know what January was like – lots of snow, so it was postponed yet again until May. It couldn’t have worked out more perfectly. This way we got to walk around and see the gardens and conservatory a bit before the concert. It was after official visiting hours, so it was a rare opportunity to see some of it without a bunch of other people around. (Some of these photos were taken with my iPad and not my fancy camera.)

The Flower Walk is always the highlight of their spring display. 

Half of the Flower Walk was in cool pinks and purples and the other half was in hot reds, yellows and oranges.

The Square Fountain area was full of brightly colored pansies and white foxglove.

The highlights of the Main Conservatory were these lavender hydrangeas with giant flowers and these pink Dr. Seuss-like Tower-of-Jewels (Echium wildpretii) from the Canary Islands.

The single-colored hanging hydrangea planters in the Acacia Passage were really pretty.  These used wire baskets and planted them all around the basket so that they end up looking like big, puffy flower balls.

We have been to indoor concerts at Longwood before, but they were in the Ballroom. This was a special treat because the concert was in the Exhibition Hall in the conservatory. I had been lucky enough to get second row seats. What a lovely setting for a piano concert.

On Saturday, I attended a Vertical Gardening class (much more about this awesome class in a post to come!). I made sure to get out to see the Idea Gardens because I heard they had masses of tulips there. Lots of tulips, indeed.

So many different varieties and colors and all in full bloom.

I couldn’t pick a favorite even if I tried (although the one above probably comes close).

The following four pictures, if pieced together, would form one big panoramic shot.

I really got lucky with the weather on both Thursday night and when I was there on Saturday morning. It was crowded on Saturday, though, due to it being Mother’s Day weekend. A fire alarm went off in the conservatory when I was there! Imagine having to evacuate tons of visitors Mother’s Day weekend! It was a very calm and organized evacuation and no fire to speak of, thankfully. It did make for an exciting day, though.

I’m sure I’ve said this before, but I used to not really like Longwood Gardens. It bothered me how manicured and perfect everything was all the time. Now I have learned to appreciate how much work goes into making it look that way every day and find it truly remarkable. Even though it’s about an hour and a half drive for me, I’m lucky to have such a large, gorgeous garden nearby. And one that offers such great classes, too – more about that later!

It’s All in the Details

I love adding details to the garden that you might not notice at first glance. I started putting out my garden decorations, potted plants, and miniature worlds last weekend. Here is what I have going on so far.

This is a new idea I had this year: A little gnome garden. I used moss that I had in the secret garden area and growing on the cedar trashcan shed, added rocks, a small piece of driftwood, some small plants, and a cute little gnome and mushrooms. Isn’t it adorable?! This is on the wrought iron table that is in the secret garden area by the greenhouse. 

 This votive lantern is hanging from the wisteria that grows on the greenhouse.

Also new this year is a little Buddha garden I made using an old broken pot, little stones, more moss, a Buddha figurine that I had, and an incense burner that looks Indian-ish. I have this amongst the hostas that grow under the wisteria tree, hence the purple petals on the ground.

I have mentioned my fairy garden before. Still have it and my sister still thinks I’m a dork for having it.

And what’s a fairy garden without fairy sheep? Come on, humor me here. Everyone knows I love little lambies, so it makes sense to find some in my fairy garden.

Looks like some fairies were here, too.

How did a drunken gnome get in my garden? Oh, he is next to the shed where Brian does his homebrewing. I get it now. He must have found his way in there.

This gnome is much more civilized and guards these hostas quite well.

I built this impromptu miniature house out of stones and a shell in the Kitchen Garden as I was cleaning things up. Maybe a fairy or gnome will move in.

I tend to put shells here and there throughout the garden. Most of these came from a trip we took to Oregon a few years ago. There are few less shells than last year – the squirrels seem to like to steal them and bury them. I keep finding them here and there.

You may find things hanging from tree branches here and there, such as this windchime made of small, tin buckets and watering cans.

Mr. Wiggles has come out of hibernation in the greenhouse and now protects the entrance to the Kitchen Garden.

New this year are my hanging terra cotta pots with ferns. This corner fence is on the front and side of the yard and you enter through the gate to get to the garden. The top part of one panel of the fence fell apart a few years ago. I finally came up with an idea to dress up our dilapidated fence. I slipped the pots into plate hangers, then wrapped wire around the hooks and up over the beam. I had actually seen something similar on Pinterest, which is where I got the basic idea. Originally I wanted to build simple, wood frames to hang with each one to make the pots look like pictures, but I’m not sure I left enough room at the top to make that idea work.

Speaking of pots, I have two little pots in this little crate thing in the Kitchen Garden. Need to get a plant for the second pot.

All of these potted plants are ones from last year that overwintered in my greenhouse. Some are a few years old. The wire container with the faucet and bird is new.

This is a type of agave that I have on the screened-in back porch. I had a larger one last year that isn’t looking too healthy. Couldn’t resist another one. Dangerous looking, but oh so cool. Helpful tip: Definitely wear gloves when potting these babies.

Also on the screened-in back porch is this pretty little Maidenhair fern I planted in a Ball jar. I love the really dark stems and the shapes of the leaves.

Another fern on the back porch, along with my Nepenthes (monkey cups / hanging pitcher plant – no pitchers on it right now). The Pitcher is a carnivorous bog plant. I re-potted this recently, so I hope it likes its new home. It was overwintering in the greenhouse.

Why such a big clock, you might ask. So I can peak in through the door when outside gardening to see what time it is, of course.

I have ideas for other little projects, but of course little projects require little time, or sometimes more than a little time. Just never seems to be enough free time. Such is life.

Beginning of May

Is it really May already? I guess it must be because the dogwood and wisteria are in full bloom.

I love this view from the screened-in porch right now. The brightly colored leaves of the spirea, against the dark, wine-colored ninebark, with the white flowers of the dogwood, and the lavender wisteria flowers make for a really great plant combination. To think, just a couple of years ago this area was an overgrown mess.

The wisteria on the shed and greenhouse is in full bloom now, too. The entire yard smells divine. It is one of my favorite fragrances.

More wisteria on the front porch.

We even have wisteria growing up a big, old tree – seen here with a magenta-colored azalea, which is the only one blooming at the moment.

Another purplish color that is in bloom is the lilac in the front yard. I had rescued this a few years ago from invasive wisteria vines.

I wish I could remember what this pink bulb is. I believe it’s a type of miniature tulip. I planted them maybe two or three years ago in the flower garden and in front of the shed. Need to look up in my previous year’s garden material to see if I can find the name.

I planted three of these Sugar and Spice Foamflowers (Tiarella) last year and all three are doing really well. They are under the tree that is to the left of the entrance to the Kitchen Garden.

In that same area, I had also planted these Variegated Solomon’s Seal. They seem pretty happy here and have spread since I planted them last year.

The flower garden is starting to come to life. Seems like I notice something new every day. It is such an exciting time of the year.

My vegetable seeds are busy trying to grow under the row covers in my raised beds. I can’t wait for fresh veggies. I was about two weeks later than usual getting my seeds planted, due to working on my final project for my web design class. It will be interesting to see how that effects my Kitchen Garden this year. That reminds me, I need to post my list and diagram of what I planted this year. Must get on that.

It was a windy weekend, but I got quite a lot done. I will be sure to post some pictures soon of what I accomplished while trying not to blow away.

Buzzing Bees on the Wisteria

All of a sudden the bumblebees are out and they are in love with the wisteria tree. The wisteria is always a bee magnet. Just wait until the vining wisteria is in full bloom – it will be like an Alfred Hitchcock movie, but with bees instead of birds.

Between the Raindrops

Earlier this week we had some heavy rain. We needed it, however, what we got on Wednesday was way too much all at once and it was challenging getting to yoga class that night with all the roads flooding. On Tuesday night, I managed to get out and get a few shots of the garden in between rain showers.

My dogwood that my younger sister gave me three and half years ago is in full bloom right now.

It looks stunning next to the purple wisteria tree, which is also blooming.

I have decided that dogwood and wisteria are just meant to go together. In the photo below, the wisteria tree was just starting to open up, but now it’s absolutely covered in gorgeous blooms. I will post an updated photo later. The wisteria vines are starting to bloom, but are always a little later than the tree version.

The raindrops make the petals of the Tulip Ad Rem look luscious. And I do believe they are looking a little more RED red than orange now...or maybe it’s just wishful thinking. There are some highlights of pink in there, actually.

It’s amazing what a couple of days of rain can do when it really needed it. The lawn has shot up like a pre-teen who just hit puberty, and the plants in the garden are yawning and spreading their leaves and branches. Time to wake up and greet the warmer weather and the sunshine. Oh happy, happy sunshine, how I missed you over the long and dreary winter.