Winter Wow, Right Now

When you think of winter, you probably don’t picture warmth, vibrancy, and bountiful blooms. However, in our spectacular new West Conservatory, that’s exactly what you can experience right now. It’s our very first winter with the new West Conservatory, meaning it’s your very first chance to witness this architectural showstopper begin its peak flowering season. Step inside this Mediterranean-inspired landscape and you’re instantly transported to a sweeping, sun-kissed vista where flora from the warm, arid regions of the southern hemisphere to the coastal landscapes of California thrive and delight—even during a cold Pennsylvania winter. Read on for what you can experience here in the West Conservatory as we excitedly begin the first flowering season in this spectacular new space. You don’t want to miss it.

This winter, the West Conservatory features a palette of intriguing, unique plants at every turn. Among those making quite a statement right now are a variety of aloe. This genus features more than 650 species of flowering succulent plants and we’re so pleased to showcase the complexity and beauty of this genus with you. Among our aloe to see right now are ghost aloe (Aloe striata × maculata), which feature light-colored leaves that can almost look frosty—and serve as a striking contrast to its bright orange flowers that punctuate the landscape. While you’ll probably be able to notice their vibrant flowers right away, in case you need some help finding them, our ghost aloe are found on the eastern end of the West Conservatory, closest to our historic conservatories. 

Another aloe that’s wowing us right now is Aloe nyeriensis. This evergreen succulent from east tropical Africa is known for its towering height potential (it can grow up to nearly 10 feet tall—ours are about 2.5 feet tall now), as well as its vibrant red blooms that appear like sparks. We received an Aloe nyeriensis in 1969 and have been growing and propagating it ever since. Growing Aloe nyeriensis completely in-house is a process that takes more than 16 months of two warm cycles and a cold cycle, with manipulated daylength along the way. It’s pure succulent sunshine when they bloom—and they’re starting to do so right now also on the eastern and western ends of the West Conservatory.  

More compact than its Aloe nyeriensis counterpart, Safari Orange aloe, Aloe ‘ANDora’, still wows with its winter color, thanks to showy spikes of brilliant orange flower clusters. This hybrid Safari Orange is a result of a breeding program that started in South Africa in 1973 that was looking for hybrid aloe selections that had ideal horticultural characteristics such as vigor, flowering consistency, and disease resistance. You can see them for yourself on the eastern side of the West Conservatory.  

Going beyond our blooming aloe plants, we would be remiss if we didn’t mention the showstopping South African shrub aptly-named pincushion (Leucospermum ‘Brandi Dela Cruz’), planted in three sections on the western end of the West Conservatory, including one large section right at the West Conservatory entrance. Leucospermum is known around the world as a popular cut flower; in South Africa, it is a popular garden plant as well as an often-used cut-flower. This West Conservatory permanent planting provides scale and seasonal drama with its eye-catching, textural, bright orange, pincushiony blooms. 

Another can’t-miss permanent plant in our West Conservatory is the spectacular Leucadendron ‘Bell’s Sunrise’ also known in the trade as ‘Wilson’s Wonder’ which you can find on the eastern end of the garden, planted in three groupings. This evergreen shrub, also native to South Africa, is recognizable by its oval, stiff leaves that give way to cone-like flowers that shine at bright red and then fade to yellow. Right now, it’s giving us quite a show with large, yellow, daisy-like blooms. 

With a name as endearing as its appearance, you’ll want to see Orange Kangaroo Paw (Anigozanthos ‘Bush Tango’) as it stuns with its tall wands of orange-yellow flowers perched atop reddish stems—together, they resemble fuzzy kangaroo paws. This native-to-Australia perennial is charming us right now on the eastern end of the West Conservatory. 

We certainly have many new-to-Longwood showstoppers to share with you right now—but we’re also delighted to share with you some of our iconic favorites, in bloom right now in our West Conservatory. Here, you’ll find ethereal hanging baskets of Streptocarpus ‘Concord Blue’, a first for our West Conservatory, but an element we’ve been proudly displaying in our conservatories for more than a decade. Often called cape-primrose, Streptocarpus ‘Concord Blue’ is a member of the African-violet family (Gesneriaceae) and is beloved for its delicate, yet-long-lasting, vibrant blue-purple flowers. 

Speaking of vibrant and a first for the West Conservatory, our fan-favorite Echium candicans ‘Select Blue’ are starting to come into bloom right now. Native to the Canary Islands and Madeira, we grow this biennial from cuttings; it takes a little more than a year to get a new cutting to the size of the plant you see on display. This beauty thrives in coastal California—and is certainly making quite a statement during its first West Conservatory winter, which you can see towards its western end. 

From interesting aloes to textural shrubs to fan-favorite iconic plants, the West Conservatory’s first peak flowering season is starting off beautifully … and we can’t wait to experience it with you.