Longwood Gardens, Pennsylvania

 

The trip home from Virginia was too far for one day so we stayed two nights at the Pennsylvania Westchester KOA near Longwood Gardens so we could spend a day there. As you can see we really lucked out on the weather.  After you leave the visitor's center you can head over first to the extensive greenhouses, seen here in the distance,

Longwood Gardens is a public garden, 1100 acres in the Brandywine Valley, purchased in 1906 by Pierre Dupont from the heirs of the Pierce family. George Pierce purchased 406 of the acres in 1700 and his grandsons began planting an arboretum in 1798. It covered 15 acres and the possible destruction of the trees caused Pierre to save it. He did extensive renovations and enlargement of the Pierce home and used it as a vacation residence. He designed formal gardens and water features and opened the property to the public in 1921 and in 1937 created the Longwood Foundation which runs it. 

We went out to dinner both nights as we'd been away from the RV for two weeks and the cupboard was unusually empty. We enjoyed our first choice so much, Hood's BBQ, we went back there the second night.

There are 1.6 acres (0.65 ha) of Conservatory gardens under glass, with 13 indoor gardens and 859 different types of permanent plants, as well as fountains

We  managed to walk around the main part of the garden and that took about 4 hours (with plenty of rest stops).  There are extensive walks further out on the property and you could spend may days here and not see everything. The one thing we really missed due to the early season was the fountain shows. They are pretty spectacular from what we heard! 

There is fabulous orchid room and we enjoyed
a long talk with the staff person there. 

The flowers change with the seasons and 
who doesn't love spring flowers.

There are three enormous conservatories all in a row. 

Scott poses in a lovely spot - due to the early season we had
very light crowds. It must be crazy in the summer.

It was all breathtaking!

The older home, the original section from the 
Pierce's time is joined to the new building with 
a conservatory garden

The outside of the home's conservatory was covered
with  blooming wisteria.

From the main path around the garden there were views of the meadows and forests beyond. We could see people on the trails off in the distance

Tulips of every color and combination in the formal gardens. 

As you can see the weather was almost good enough to eat outside, but not quite - sunny but around 60 degrees.

I didn't take a photo inside so used one from a google review. But you can see how attractive it was