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![An outdoor concert being performed in the Open Air Theatre at Longwood Gardens.](/sites/default/files/styles/blog_masonry_sm/public/2024-08/589459_Wine%20_%20Jazz%20All%20Stars_Hill_%20William%20_Bill_%20_Longwood%20Volunteer%20Photographer_.jpg?itok=_-lzofbH)
A Wine & Jazz Experience Like No Other
Live music, incredible performers, wines from around the world, and breathtaking garden beauty … all that—and more—awaits in our Gardens during our soon-to-come Wine & Jazz experience.
![A stone plant container with red and pink cosmos overflowing out of the pot.](/sites/default/files/styles/blog_masonry_sm/public/2024-08/774528_Rose%20Arbor%20Island_Davis_%20Harold%20_Hank_%20_Longwood%20Volunteer%20Photographer_.jpg?itok=KvvcdToK)
Time to Shine: Summertime Containers
Container gardening has many benefits—and can lead to beautiful displays, as you can enjoy right now in our Rose Arbor, outside of the Peirce-du Pont House, and outside of The Café.
![A stone staircase in the background with orange flowers in the foreground.](/sites/default/files/styles/blog_masonry_sm/public/2024-07/776000_For%20Blog_%20Square%20Fountain%20Garden%20_Greenwald_%20Patrick.jpg?h=bd70242b&itok=3ZcXtB6S)
Colors of Summer: The Square Fountain Garden
Follow along as I share the design of this summer’s Square Fountain Garden, the beauty you can see here, and how the plants chosen for the garden support pollinators, formalize the informal, and evolve throughout the season.
![A topiary garden with an old stone building behind it located in Portugal.](/sites/default/files/styles/blog_masonry_sm/public/2024-07/772652_FOR%20BLOG%202024%20Pro%20Hort%20Class%20Trip%20to%20Portugal_Charli%20Klein%20.jpg?itok=4EK6GCfO)
A Trip to Portugal: Exploring the Wild and Tamed
The Professional Horticulture class of 2024 has spent the past two years organizing and holding plant sales—selling numerous plants, many of which we grew ourselves—and last month we enjoyed the fruits of our labor with our trip to Portugal, a destination inspired by the Mediterranean garden design of the nearly completed West Conservatory of Longwood Reimagined: A New Garden Experience.
![Two people in yellow protective suits standing in a recently burned meadow.](/sites/default/files/styles/blog_masonry_sm/public/2024-06/772314_FOR%20BLOG%20Ignition%20crew%20members%20Carlos%20Rodriguez%20and%20Samantha%20Paine%20in%20completed%20meadow%20area%20_Noah%20Meanix%20.jpg?h=6cfc2255&itok=jqO2zUlF)
A Beneficial Burn Experience
Prescribed burns, which occur in such locations as our Meadow Garden, are a way in which we can maintain the meadow’s health by rejuvenating its native plant communities and suppressing woody vegetation that would otherwise quickly overrun it.
![The inside of the Conservatory at Longwood Gardens with purple plants in the foreground looking up at the glass ceiling.](/sites/default/files/styles/blog_masonry_sm/public/2024-06/764124_West%20Conservatory%20planting_Davis_%20Harold%20_Hank_%20_Longwood%20Volunteer%20Photographer_.jpg?itok=V2Wqm3tY)
Telling a Design Story: Planting the West Conservatory
Our November 22 opening of Longwood Reimagined continues to draw nearer, and with each passing day not only do we continue to make great progress, but we grow even more excited to share its beauty with you.
![An old frame containing a black and white image of a person in a tuxedo, surrounded by a gold inset on the frame.](/sites/default/files/styles/blog_masonry_sm/public/2024-06/768575_Ruth%20Naomi%20Floyd%20Juneteenth%20Blog.jpg?itok=Yx5SQGqS)
In Their Own Words: Ruth Naomi Floyd and Voices Underground
To commemorate Juneteenth, and in collaboration with Kennett Square nonprofit Voices Underground and the Chester County History Center, we are proud to soon present Frederick Douglass Jazz Works—a discussion and jazz performance comprised of vocalist and composer Ruth Naomi Floyd.
![A rose bush with an empty bench to its left.](/sites/default/files/styles/blog_masonry_sm/public/2024-04/593407_Rose%20Arbor_Davis_%20Harold%20_Hank_%20_Longwood%20Volunteer%20Photographer_.jpg?itok=ynrXRXuK)
Ensuring the Longevity of Roses
From work we do here in our Gardens to manage such threats, to our support of related research led a multidisciplinary team from nine universities and the US Department of Agriculture to deepen understanding of such diseases—we are working to ensure the longevity of this iconic plant in our Gardens and beyond.
![A desert garden featuring aloe, cactus, and a pond in the background.](/sites/default/files/styles/blog_masonry_sm/public/2024-05/764524_NOT%20AT%20LONGWOOD_%2023-24%20Fellows%20Field%20Placement%20Blog%20Post_Anderson_%20Nathan.jpg?itok=49iXQDBf)
Learning—and Leading—Around the World
As part of the Longwood Fellows Program, Fellows spend two months with partner organizations around the world to immerse themselves in their host’s culture, learn from thought leaders, and share and grow their own expertise.
![The Idea Garden at Longwood with spring plantings in the beds and the conervatory in the distance.](/sites/default/files/styles/blog_masonry_sm/public/2024-05/763792_Longwood%20Gardens%20-%20May%202024_Mathias_%20Becca%20_Commissioned%20as%20of%204_2022_.jpg?itok=uxS1e7Pk)
Our Idea Garden, Reimagined
Featuring five unique garden spaces—including the redesigned Ornamental Kitchen Garden—the Idea Garden echoes some of the classical elements of the Main Fountain Garden and blends the formal with the less formal, and notably the agrarian.
![The Cynorkis orchid with small pink flowers set in front of green foliage.](/sites/default/files/styles/blog_masonry_sm/public/2024-04/760431_Cynorkis%20Hybrid%20Orchid_Gross_%20Carol.jpg?h=a3e84c09&itok=I-yQSYHU)
Cynorkis: A Jewel Box of Possibilities
Our first hybrid Cynorkis—Cynorkis Longwood Pink Gem—is now on view for the first time in our Orchid House for the next week, and ready to delight.
![The end of a stone bench with a carved head of an eagle in it.](/sites/default/files/styles/blog_masonry_sm/public/2024-04/164105_Winter%20Garden_Davis_%20Harold%20_Hank_%20_Longwood%20Volunteer%20Photographer_.jpg?h=0e991fab&itok=uAe88oOs)
Do You Want to Know a Secret?
Our beloved Whispering Bench is not only a lovely place to sit and take in the view; it’s a place of physics, history, and curiosity, where secrets have been told—and fun has been had—for generations.
![A group of people, kids and adults, walking on a paved path through Longwood Gardens.](/sites/default/files/styles/blog_masonry_sm/public/2024-03/748414_Family%20Nature%20Walks_Gross_%20Carol.jpg?itok=ZQOHHToD)
Family Nature Strolls: Your Family, Our Gardens
![Two dozen small sprouting seeds in a glass bowl.](/sites/default/files/styles/blog_masonry_sm/public/2024-02/748221_FOR%20BLOG%20-%20seeds%20_Zale_%20Peter.jpg?itok=faW7IYAe)
Seed Banking on the Future
With our recent award of a competitive grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources as part of the Wild Resource Conservation Program, we are thrilled to be able to grow our efforts in preserving more species of conservation concern through the expansion of our seed bank.
![A person kneeling down beside a garden bed smiling at the camera.](/sites/default/files/styles/blog_masonry_sm/public/2024-03/754908_For%20Following%20Garden%20Pathways%20Blog%20.jpg?h=28fb443d&itok=WbxMC21n)
Following Garden Pathways Around the Globe
Much of our variety in plants, garden design, and horticultural expertise comes from our exchange of knowledge with other public gardens, horticultural organizations, and skilled professionals from all over the world.
![Two black iron snakes laying in a garden.](/sites/default/files/styles/blog_masonry_sm/public/2024-03/754976_Iron%20Snakes_Gross_%20Carol.jpg?h=48c2b73a&itok=qjIPFfaR)
Uncle Pierre’s Iron Snakes
Since the days of the Peirce family, a pair of wrought-iron snakes have occupied various locations on the grounds, alternately delighting and startling unsuspecting visitors.
![A black and white image of an old farm house.](/sites/default/files/styles/blog_masonry_sm/public/2024-03/3346_Edgar%20White_s%20House.jpg?itok=SYnvNm2S)
A Wartime Agricultural Connection
Our 2024 Community Read book, The Last Garden in England by Julia Kelly, isn’t just a remarkable selection that exemplifies the meaning we can all find in gardens—it also has a fascinating historic agricultural connection to Longwood Gardens.
![A persons hands getting ready to pick up a plank of wood.](/sites/default/files/styles/blog_masonry_sm/public/2024-03/750492_NOT%20AT%20LONGWOOD%20-%20The%20Challenge%20Program%20For%20Blog%20_Freshfly%20.jpg?itok=rkeYz7qs)
A Thing of Reimagined Beauty: Community and Sustainability
Among those helping make Longwood Reimagined an upcoming reality is The Challenge Program, a local nonprofit that provides vocational training for Delaware’s youth to empower them with confidence, skills, and purpose—and the makers of custom furnishings that will grace the new buildings opening with Longwood Reimagined.
![An old white house being moved on a large trailer with wheels.](/sites/default/files/styles/blog_masonry_sm/public/2024-02/750875_Cox%20House%20on%20Route%201_Donham_%20Richard%20_Longwood%20Volunteer%20Photographer_.jpg?itok=rBy9pmUQ)
Preserving History: A Move for the Cox House
Located on Longwood property just south of the entrance to our Gardens, the Cox House sits alongside Route 1 and, in response to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s initiative to widen the road, Longwood made the decision to relocate the Cox House away from the road to ensure its ongoing preservation.
![A book titled "The Last Garden in England" propped up in a flower garden bed.](/sites/default/files/styles/blog_masonry_sm/public/2024-02/690858_2024%20Community%20Read%20Books_Gross_%20Carol.jpg?h=6610763a&itok=oiCDRpGE)
Community Read: A Conversation with Author Julia Kelly
Growing up in a small, rural town in the South, The Secret Garden (our 2024 Community Read selection for our youngest readers) sparked my imagination at an early age with the idea of gardens as cloaked in mystery and secrets, filled with hidden beauty (and stories) waiting to be revealed.