This week, Kevin Sharkey and I participated in a garden discussion and book signing at the exquisite Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. More than 1,450 guests attended the talk in the historic Open Air Theatre.

Dorrance ‘Dodo’ Hamilton was a longtime and avid supporter of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. She passed away in April of 2017. Many know her as an heiress to the Campbell Soup fortune; those of us in the Brandywine Valley region remember her more for her outstanding entries in The Philadelphia Flower Show for so many years.

I love visiting gardens whenever I can, especially during this time when many conservatories are filled with colorful orchid displays. If you're in or near historic Kennett Square, Pennsylvania from now through March 25th, I encourage you to make a stop at Longwood Gardens to see the annual “Orchid Extravaganza.”

It’s the time of year that I anticipate more than any other at Longwood Gardens—Orchid Extravaganza is back for a triumphant expression of beauty through March 25, 2018. Our Conservatory is always filled with color, texture, form, and surprise, but when dozens of Longwood horticulturists are invited to express their passion for orchids (combined with an incomparable level of dedication and creativity), you have something that truly transcends description.

This year, our horticulturists are celebrating Christmas with a French flair, heralding the season with many a fleur-de-lis. You’ll spy this floral symbol of French royalty throughout our Conservatory—as ornaments on trees, in the design of the fruit floating on the Fern Floor of Exhibition Hall, and in the living wreath near the Potting Shed. A sense of luxury and opulence weaves through our Garden spaces, creating a tapestry of exquisite details. In a single visit, transport yourself to the palatial rooms of Versailles or to the quiet countryside of Provence, with your imagination as your passport.

Longwood’s Christmas display develops around a theme—some unifying concept that ties together the colors and imagery throughout the Conservatory. The theme is chosen by our horticulture staff, who then involve colleagues from throughout the Gardens to brainstorm ideas and come up with different ways to express the theme. This year we were inspired by the motifs of classical French design. As soon as the French theme was chosen, we all agreed, “There must be a parterre garden!”

In October we wrapped up our third season of a friendly competition in our Trial Garden. Our gardeners submitted plant combinations and designs that were showcased for all of our guests to enjoy—and vote for their favorites!

As Longwood’s Display Designer, it is my responsibility to make sure that our Chrysanthemum Festival is beautiful and engaging. In order to make the Festival successful we rely on a very talented group of individuals, and it is my privilege to lead the creative process. The plans for Chrysanthemum Festival happen more than one year in advance, starting with my conceptual plan that takes into account color, height, texture, and other aesthetic considerations.

While I was at QVC earlier this week, I had the opportunity to visit the exquisite Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square. If you are in the area through November 19th, stop by and visit the Chrysanthemum Festival, where you’ll see thousands of colorful mums planted in orbs, spirals, and pagodas—you’ll love it. Here are photos from my recent visit to Longwood Gardens—enjoy.

The 2017 Orchid Extravaganza at Longwood Gardens is certainly the most outstanding display I’ve seen here since we started this exhibition! There are more orchids in more places than you could hope to enjoy in one morning. The Longwood team has scoured the orchid world to bring you some of the most dynamic selections available to gardeners! The careful composition of colors and textures is what really makes this extravaganza so special.

Every season, our gardeners strive to create new and innovative displays while preserving the spirit and traditions of A Longwood Christmas. For this year’s display, Senior Gardener Koa Kanamee spearheaded the brainstorming, design, and execution of the largest “Living Tree” in Longwood’s history. Standing in the flooded Fern Floor of the Exhibition Hall at 30 feet tall and 20 feet wide, the tree boasts 1,300 individually potted plants, including red poinsettias, white Euphorbia fulgens, Canary ivy, Hedera canariensis, white Phalaenopsis orchids, and hand-painted winged Euonymus.

For a second season, staff members from all corners of the Gardens used their creative talents to design garden plots in our Trial Garden—all while engaging in a friendly competition. The process is a way for us to showcase new plants for our guests, evaluate each plant’s suitability for our display, and spotlight our staff’s design talents. Participants selected three to eight plants from a list of more than 160 plant species and cultivars. This year we had a total of 15 different combinations, including the top three combinations from last year's Trial Garden. The results are in!

The final installment of Nightscape's Artist & Friends wrapped up the speaker series with a discussion about the future of virtual experiences. Kevin Ritchie and Mark McCallum of Klip Collective joined founding member Ricardo Rivera to discuss the future of virtual reality and its relationship to fields as varied as art, design, healthcare, and military training; and the place of human agency within art and immersive experiences.

The latest installment of the Nightscape Artist & Friends Speaker Series on September 9 provided a continuation of 2015’s July topic: the importance of music to the Nightscape experience. Justin Geller from Pink Skull rejoined Ricardo Rivera, director of Nightscape and founding member of Klip Collective, and fellow Pink Skull composer Julian Grefe joined the conversation via Skype from Germany. Last year’s panel described the role of Pink Skull in the development of Nightscape, especially their contribution to the Silver Garden and Palm House. Two major changes to this year’s installations extended the collaboration between Pink Skull and Klip Collective and focused on Peirce’s Woods and the Waterlily Display.

The return of Nightscape: A Light and Sound Experience by Klip Collective means the return of the Friday night Artist & Friends Speaker Series. The first of three installments, on Friday, August 12, included Ricardo Rivera, founding member of Klip Collective and creator of Nightscape, and Thom Roland, Art Director at Klip Collective. Both artists discussed the basics of projection mapping and various uses for this medium; the overlap of their respective roles at their studio and behind the scenes of Nightscape; and a few of the changes they made to the 2016 version of Nightscape.

The nighttime spectacle Nightscape: A Light and Sound Experience by Klip Collective returns to Longwood with even more remarkable effects August 3 through October 29. Your favorite installations are back: topiaries that come to life, an enchanted lake and woodland, the colorful geometry of the Palm House and Silver Garden. New installations in the Exhibition Hall, the Mediterranean Garden, and the Waterlily Display will become instant favorites. Join us for a nighttime adventure across a magical landscape transformed by light, movement, color, and sound. But, don’t take our word for it. Hear from guests about what they thought about Nightscape.

As February transitions into March, those of us in Southeastern Pennsylvania are looking everywhere for signs of spring. This year, the grounds of Longwood Gardens are providing a half million new reminders that spring is just around the corner. Last fall, our gardeners, students, and volunteers completed a massive effort to add 500,000 early spring bulbs to the landscape, and these bulbs are beginning to bloom now!

A little boy dashes from the Visitor Center into the brightly quiet wonder of A Longwood Christmas. His eyes, wide as the night, reflect the glow of the big old elm, tall as the sky and brilliant with light, perhaps borrowed from the stars above. “How do they do all of this?” he exclaims. A December breeze catches the branches and makes the lights twinkle even more brightly. Or could it be the spirit of Christmas at Longwood—the unseen essence that animates the place and its people?

During the past year, Longwood guests have had the opportunity to watch the revitalization of the Main Fountain Garden. The current view in front of the Conservatory may not appear to be an obvious source of aesthetic inspiration for other projects around the Gardens; however, Longwood’s Display Designer, Jim Sutton, has placed this massive project at the heart of the Gardens’ Christmas theme. This year, fountains and the essence of water inform every aspect of the Conservatory’s display as the Main Fountain Garden revitalization continues a short distance away.

A life lesson here in Japan is that beauty is, without a doubt, in the eye of the beholder. Learning about the Japanese perception of beauty in contrast to our own has been a fascinating study in aesthetic. The chrysanthemum has provided us with the perfect subject matter to view these differences and has given us a whole new perspective on our own Chrysanthemum Festival at Longwood Gardens.