Among our many conservation efforts is our recent work in propagating and restoring hundreds of one of the rarest plants in Pennsylvania, the Appalachian Jacob’s ladder (Polemonium vanbruntiae).

We’re celebrating our newest brew with a special evening in our Beer Garden featuring Victory’s Senior Manager of Education and Training Max Finnance—who happens to be one of only 22 Master Cicerones in the world.

While we often think of the landscapes around our homes as self-contained, they’re actually part of a broader landscape mosaic —and each home landscape can make a profound impact on that mosaic and the variety of wildlife (and people!) that rely on it.

The practice of land stewardship constantly raises new questions—how best to approach a new problem; what methods work best—that can be answered using the tools of ecological science.

The removal, restoration, and reinstallation of these finely detailed—and heavy—sculptures required a delicate, almost surgical approach and in the process, we delved into their history and purpose at Longwood.

Most of our indoor camellias have wrapped up their flowering for the year, but those that are still in bloom give a hint of the camellias planted in the outdoor gardens, and also hint at our behind-the-scenes breeding work with this group of plants.

Since 1955 all orchids in our collection have been accessioned and their life status tracked in a system whose “record will be of information and great value for our program of public education,” as was reported to our Board of Trustees in October 1955.

Paperbark maple’s attributes alone make it worth promoting, but its conservation status has lent additional importance to working with it.

For many, seeing insects in a garden may lead to initial alarm and raise questions about what harm those insects could inflict on the plants. Not all insects, however, are bad and here at Longwood, we regularly release beneficial insects in certain parts of our Gardens.

Even though the Waterlily Court can’t be visited until its 2024 reopening, the aquatic plants for which this space is known—including our famed Victoria water-platters—are still growing and thriving while awaiting their newly refreshed home.

Through our new lepidopteran monitoring initiative, Longwood’s Land Stewardship and Ecology team is working with dedicated volunteers to understand which butterflies, moths, and skippers are frequenting our Meadow Garden, and what that says about not only the Meadow Garden, but the ecosystem of our greater landscape.

Longwood is one of a small number of public gardens around the world who breed and display the Disa genus. We have recently met a major milestone that adds an entirely new dimension to our Disa history and our breeding program—and may increase the ease with which Disa can be grown at home.

At Longwood, how do we—Longwood’s Land Stewardship and Ecology team—work to address and advance these complex systems of study here at Longwood and beyond?

Longwood developed its Orchid Conservation Program in 2015 to ensure that a variety of orchid species are saved for generations to come.

Let’s take a trip abroad and explore which orchids that locales from Guatemala to the Seychelles have chosen to recognize and celebrate in their currency, their culture, and more … and discover when those revered orchids are in bloom here at Longwood.

This project may lead to findings that could inform future orchid restoration plantings at Longwood, throughout Pennsylvania, and beyond … but also one that we hope could help inspire a new generation of conservationists.

In the last year, we have started to use a PiCUS Sonic Tomograph, a device that uses sound wave technology to advance tree care and the accuracy of tree risk assessments by allowing arborists to get a look at the inside of the tree when assessing its structural integrity.

While I’ve often heard gardeners jokingly remark that botanists like to change names just to keep them guessing, botanical name changes happen often and represent advances in science and our understanding of the relationships in the plant world.

In my first few weeks here at Longwood, I found that my linguistics background would definitely come in handy … especially when I made an orchid discovery that would bring my past studies and my current plant records work full circle.