While visiting the Villa d'Este in 1913, Pierre S. du Pont, the founder of Longwood Gardens, announced, “It would be nice to have something like this at home.” This was a sentiment shared by other wealthy Americans visiting Europe around the same time. American residential landscape design in the late 19th and early 20th centuries—now known as the "Country Place Era"—was driven by these educated and well-traveled individuals who had the desire and means to build elaborate European-style estates at home. Mr. du Pont was developing Longwood Gardens not long after George Washington Vanderbilt II established the sprawling Biltmore Estate; at the same time, William Bowers Bourn II was constructing his country house, Filoli, and John D. Rockefeller was building this hilltop palace, Kykuit.

Last Friday, the first of four installments of the Artists & Friends Speakers Series took place with three panelists: Ricardo Rivera, director of Nightscape: A Light and Sound Experience by Klip Collective and founding member of Klip Collective; composer and musician Jon Barthmus of Sun Airway; and composer and musician Justin Geller of Pink Skull. Guests heard the panelists discuss their varied artistic backgrounds, and they also learned about the lengthy collaboration and development process for the sights and sounds that combine to create the Nightscape installations. The minds behind Nightscape are friends who have worked together on several different projects. When Rivera found out that Klip Collective would be working with Longwood Gardens, he knew right away that relying on Barthmus and Pink Skull for Nightscape’s music would perfectly bind together his video installations in different parts of the Gardens.

With the opening of Nightscape: A Light and Sound Experience by Klip Collective, our guests will have many fascinating subjects to photograph. However, nighttime photography poses a unique set of challenges, and requires a much different approach than taking pictures during the day. Read our blog for some tips to avoid blurry, washed out images. We love to see the Gardens through our guests’ lenses—please share your pictures using #Nightscape2015.

Are technology and gardens two incongruous concepts? How about enjoying a space filled with sunloving plants in the darkness of night? Does it seem like a paradox? At Longwood, we don’t think so. This summer we are bringing you Nightscape: A Light and Sound Experience by Klip Collective, which uses technology to illuminate the Gardens at night to amazing effect. This exhibition is a continuation of our nighttime garden experiences, a tradition that goes all the way back to our founder, Pierre S. du Pont. Mr. du Pont believed that gardens are for nighttime as well as daytime enjoyment. He entertained his family and friends at night, throwing garden parties that included dancers and musicians. He even built the Open Air Theatre to have a venue dedicated to entertainment in the garden.

Lost in the Meadow . . . those four words can conjure up very different meanings. Maybe you actually got lost in Longwood’s Meadow Garden, or perhaps another meadow. Maybe that phrase has metaphoric meaning, that you lose yourself while surrounded by beauty and nature. Whatever the case, Lost in the Meadow is the title of a new play being developed right before our very eyes—in our very own Meadow Garden. In the spring of 2011, a year after Longwood Gardens and People’s Light & Theatre agreed to partner to create a new play, teams of playwrights and set designers gathered for an immersive weekend, seeking to absorb everything they could about our Gardens. The playwrights were here to develop ideas for a new play inspired by Longwood. After concepts were developed, board members and staff representatives from both organizations heard the playwrights “pitch” their ideas. Out of those pitches, we decided to give one team the green light to start writing and designing. We were ready to proceed!

The Japanese art of bonsai originated in China as the practice known as penjing. Early in Chinese history, trees and other plants were collected from the wild and grown in containers. The practice moved to Japan many centuries ago through social and economic interaction with China. Over the years, both countries developed various techniques that we continue to use in creating bonsai today. The Japanese word bonsai translates to "tree in a shallow pot." Though some plants in our collection date back to the early 1900s, bonsai were not part of our displays during the time of our founder, Pierre S. du Pont. In 1959, five years after Pierre’s death, renowned bonsai artist Yuji Yoshimura presented a class in our Continuing Education program. It was so well received that our staff members decided we should have some bonsai of our own.

TechniCulture, hosted by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, was held April 17 at the Chemical Heritage Foundation. Longwood Gardens was a great fit to present at this year’s TechniCulture, since innovation is a key part of our legacy and continues to be integral to our Gardens’ future.

After a long winter, we’re finally seeing the spectacular colors of tulips throughout the Gardens. With color blocked borders of approximately 100,000 tulips every year, the display on the Flower Garden Walk is always an anticipated sight.

The beauty of our spring display would not be complete without the towering, striking, and unusual plant, Echium wildpretii, ‘tower-of-jewels’. While this plant stands at nearly seven feet tall, its tiny, salmon-colored flowers are what make it truly magnificent. As each tassel of flowers blooms into graceful curves along the plant, the stamens stick out as if dancing from the tiny flowers, transforming this tower-of-jewels into a whimsical display of beauty.

"They know how to build soil, recycle water, create homes for endless other beings; they give us the very air we breathe, they know how to make berries out of light. We might do well to listen." —Robin Wall Kimmerer. Photo by Richard Donham.

Since winning the Longwood Gardens International Organ Competition, Sheen has performed around the U.S., in the UK, Spain, and will tour Singapore, Australia, and Canada later this year. But one of his favorite concerts was his May 2014 return to Longwood, offering him the chance to play The Longwood Organ again. “I adore it,” Sheen said about the 10,010-pipe instrument. “It is like no other organ,” he said. Sheen readily admits that the Longwood Organ is still daunting to program and play, even after his hours playing it, but notes the organ is romantic and orchestral and well suited to the kind of music he enjoys playing.

Trees are some of the largest and longest-lived organisms on earth. Senior Gardener Pandora Young shares some of her favorite stories of tree lore and invites you to take another look at the relationships we all share with the living world around us.

"So, what's going on in the Meadow these days?" I've heard this question a lot recently, and it's easy to see why. Looking out over its frigid expanse, I sometimes feel as if the entire garden is in suspended animation until warmer weather. But while the Meadow Garden has been icy, it's hardly been put on ice!

This year, we’ve brought a unique and rare Phalaenopsis Sogo Yukidian ‘V3’ hybrid to Orchid Extravaganza, which we believe is being displayed for the first time in a US public garden. The ‘V3’ moth orchids featured on the center walk of our Orangery have unusually long flower spikes with as many as 18 open flowers on a single spike (with more buds yet to open)! Photo by Trilbey Smith.

A community of animals—among them a boa, a toucan, a sloth, and a jaguar—call the kapok tree their home. Each whispers to the man who comes to cut the tree down, filling his dreams with the kapok's life-giving secrets. The man wakes to the wonder of this tree in the Amazon rain forest, drops his axe, and walks away.

Learn how our gardeners created this miniature indoor landscape, which was inspired by the colors, textures, and organic feel of Longwood’s new Meadow Garden. Photo by Duane Erdmann.

One definition of a "standard" is a norm by which similar things can be measured. In horticulture, however, a standard is a plant that is trained or grafted to have a single stem, and a crown of leaves and flowers. Combine the two meanings, and you have the degree of excellence achieved by Longwood in the beauty of its standard forms. Photo by Larry Albee.

Early winter is a special time of year for birds and bird watchers alike, as cold temperatures bring seasonal migrations to a fever pitch and instill a new sense of urgency in our resident species. Photo by Duane Erdmann.

If you’ve visited the Gardens recently, you know that Longwood has taken flight this season with a stunning bird-inspired holiday display. What you may not know is that this area of Pennsylvania has a rich history in the study of ornithology. Illustration of American sparrow hawk and field sparrow, drawn from nature by A. Wilson, engraved by A. Lawson. From American Ornithology.

The enduring photographic legacy of Longwood gardener turned staff photographer Gottlieb Hampfler.