Many paths wind in and around Longwood’s Meadow Garden. One crosses a curved, two-level bridge that encourages you to tarry.
My wife suggested we vacation at Longwood Gardens. It was a short trip: Thursday to travel there and enjoy the garden, and Friday to explore the Kennett Square area and travel home.
We killed it. The garden opened at 9AM and, with a “Nightscape” ticket, we could stay until 11PM. Between the two of us we had seen virtually nothing of Longwood. We decided to arrive as the doors opened. The gatekeeper told us it was the earliest anyone had arrived at the garden on a Nightscape ticket.
Nightscape? What’s that?
Nightscape is a laser light show, bits of which you view in different of the many gardens at Longwood. At each venue you hear music, and patterns of light dance on foliage or other garden features.
You can take a relaxed stroll through the gardens after dark, following dimly-lighted paths with docents ready at many intersections to point the way. The “Beer Garden” remains open in a fairly central location where you can buy snacks, beer, and wine.
Nightscape had very much the feeling of a large party with well-mannered revelers. On a mildly warm summer night, it was a very pleasant garden walk.
During a long day of walking, excessive heat, hydrating, violent thunderstorms, eating, and marveling at the history and beauty of Longwood Gardens, we explored nearly every accessible area of the facility. Photos in this post are from the Meadow Garden—a very new feature at Longwood.
Heavily planted with milkweed, the Meadow Garden is a masterpiece of textures. The milkweed alone produced unexpected patterns that changed from area-to-area as I scanned the landscape. Here’s hoping the meadow retains much of its character; it could become an important breeding ground for monarch butterflies.
Bird houses in the Meadow Garden at Longwood Gardens had green roofs! A docent explained that Longwood is collecting data to determine whether birds prefer homes with green roofs rather than bare-roofed ones.
The Webbs lived in a farmhouse at the back end of what is now Longwood’s Meadow Garden. You can walk up to the house to learn about its history, but we decided to save that for another day.
Small Kitchen Garden – Longwood Gardens: Meadow & Green Roofs