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While sun gardens are places in which every flower color under the sun can be showcased, shade gardens are more subtle and elegant … and definitely a way to enjoy your outdoor space while taking refuge from the midsummer heat.

Among Longwood’s many methods of caring for our trees and helping facilitate their longevity is our lightning protection plan. Journey along with me as I walk you through the field of lightning protection.

These late spring flowers have just recently made their debut along Flower Garden Walk, but we’ve been carefully planning and coaxing their arrival since last summer, using a growing technique rooted in precision and care.

Designed by noted landscape architect Thomas Church, the Theatre Garden features drought-tolerant plants that can survive tough conditions … and gives a textural, star-studded performance each year during the summer’s heat and bright sunlight.

Trees are an exceptionally important part of Longwood Gardens’ heritage and our future … they are nothing less than the backbone of our Gardens. When considering our tree management efforts in the context of climate change modeling, we not only consider the future, but also the present.

When it’s time to plant a tree at Longwood, I look to plant one with a story. … Our new sycamore originates from the incredibly massive tree just a few miles down the road at Brandywine Battlefield State Park in Chadds Ford.

If you’re looking to augment your garden with late season blooms at a time when most perennials begin to fade, consider dahlias. Dahlias come in many colors, shapes, and sizes, and because of their variety, can be incorporated into many garden landscapes. Dahlias are also beautiful in the home, as they make excellent cut flowers.

Every spring, thousands upon thousands of beauty-seekers head to Longwood Gardens to take in one of our most spectacular sights—our beloved tulips. Ever-changing and always stunning, our tulip display is undeniably gorgeous, but what is it about the tulip itself that draws so much attention and wonder? Why are we so attracted to this seemingly simple flower? The answer may go far beyond the tulip’s beauty and instead lie in mankind’s fascination with the unattainable.

Longwood is home to the most significant fountain collection in North America and in June we celebrate all the fountains in our Gardens. From Pierre S. du Pont’s first single-jet fountain on the Flower Garden Walk to the 1,719-jet Main Fountain Garden, guests can learn more about Longwood’s fountains with tours and two new exhibits...

I love this time of year in Peirce’s Woods, even though it feels like a non-stop race to pull all the weeds before they go to seed. The beauty of the woods in bloom makes me forget all that. Suddenly all the flowers in Peirce’s Woods have opened all at once. Peirce’s Woods is an art form garden, composed with native plants. The central design theme is large horizontal sweeps of groundcovers balancing the strong vertical lines of the mature tree trunks. Most of our native woodland flowers take advantage of the brief period in early spring before the trees fully leaf out to grow, flower and set seed. The two main groundcovers currently stealing the show are sweeps of white foamflowers (Tiarella) and ‘Sherwood Purple’ creeping phlox (Phlox stolonifera).

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.

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.

The Open Air Theatre celebrated 100 years of arts in 2014. A fond look back.

Longwood Gardens has so much to offer in the way of trees. Thanks to Pierre du Pont, we have this beautiful garden and its amazing old trees. Pierre bought the land for exactly that reason: to save a group of trees. The trees that he saved are incredible specimens, but I am here to tell you about the giants living among us.

It is very sad to lose a tree, especially one as old as the Sentinel Oak. That is why it was such a joyous occasion today, as we planted a new Sentinel Oak!