Meadow Garden

District: Meadow & Forest District
Style: Expansive, Naturalistic, Varied
Best Seasons to Visit: Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn
Scale: 86 Acres

Quiet your busy mind with a trip to the Meadow Garden, where you’ll be greeted by expansive vistas, sweeps of stunning native plants, and a tapestry of texture. Time slows as you wander miles of trails past the carefully managed wetlands, ponds, open fields, and forest’s edge, set to the hum of busy insects and rustling plants. From season to season, nature’s ephemeral beauty awaits, beckoning all of us to look more closely at our natural world.

About This Garden

Our spacious Meadow Garden takes you beyond the formal areas of Longwood into 86 open acres of designed natural landscapes. Bridges, pavilions, and boardwalks call attention to the various habitats that demonstrate the complex interrelationships of plants and animals to one another. Native flowers and grasses attract a variety of pollinators that, in turn, maintain many kinds of life, from butterflies, moths, and skippers to an array of birds. The wetlands support moisture-loving plants, amphibians, and insects, while the young trees and shrubs of the forest’s edge provide cover and food for many birds and small animals.

Beyond the contemplative beauty of this vast, open space, the opportunities for learning are numerous, supported not only by the miles of trails and multiple pavilions, but also the historic Webb Farmhouse which, through signage, photography, and art installations, showcases the Meadow throughout the four seasons and the stories of the people who have inhabited and influenced the land since the Lenni-Lenape.

The Meadow, home to a diverse array of important flora and fauna, is a critical type of habitat that is increasingly rare in our region. We work year-round to control invasive species, protect the watershed, maintain native species, and manage growth to maintain and augment the health, vigor, and resilience of the Meadow. We plant native species that build on the Meadow’s diversity, adding unique forms and intensity of color to the Meadow’s beauty.

A garden, to be a work of art, must have the soul of the native landscape in it.

Jens Jensen

Seasons of Splendor

Journey through a year in the Meadow Garden, where the native plants and wild residents of this thoughtfully managed landscape are part of an ever-changing tapestry of seasonal beauty.

Tufts of green grass grow through a burned area of a meadow

Though our teams make it look effortlessly beautiful, the Meadow requires constant maintenance to thrive. Each year, sections of this landscape are mowed or burned, helping to control invasive, non-native species as well as release nutrients into the soil. Here, young grasses emerge with promise, signaling a new beginning.

purple 5-petaled flower on green background

Illuminated by May’s morning sun, wild cranesbill (Geranium maculatum) holds the promise of the Meadow’s spring awakening.

A stone pathway leads into a meadow garden with pink and white trees

In April, the soft amethyst hues of the Eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis) are offset by the blooms of flowering dogwood (Cornus florida 'Appalachian Spring') and hybrid fothergilla (Fothergilla x intermedia 'Mt. Airy'), illuminated by a carpet of golden-ragwort’s (Packera aurea)canary yellow flowers at one of the entrances near the forest’s edge.

Tall green plants with yellow flowers in the foreground, with a small house and large tree in the background

Ox-eye (Heliopsis helianthoides) reaches for an endless June sky, signaling longer days and a symphony of sound, from the whirring wings of the insects to rustling leaves in the breeze.

purple flower spikes in a green field of meadow grasses

Liatris spicata, also known as blazing-star, adds spectacular spikes of lavender to the sweeping vista from late June through August.

A long tin blue insect hovers mid-air next to a brown prickly plant

During the summer months, the common blue damselfly is one of the many beneficial insects that call the Meadow home.

A grass path leads into an overgreen green meadow of plants

Native sunflowers (Helianthus spp.) stretch out from what will soon be a sea of yellow, care of the goldenrod about to burst into bloom below.

A yellow butterfly sits on a pink flower of a plant in a green meadow

Joe-pye weed (Eutrochium purpureum), a member of the aster family, is a mainstay in our Meadow, providing late-season nectar for butterflies and shelter for the creatures who aren’t as outgoing. Its reliable blooms, with their mauve-pink hue, lend a delicate softness to the vista from July through October.

a curving bridge punctuates a large meadow filled with yellow sunflowers

The Meadow Bridge offers an arresting vista when late-summer-yellow hues hold court, offering an unparalleled perspective to the ecologically designed landscape.

Yellow plants in a meadow under a blue sky

The languorous movements and rhythmic rustling of native grasses (Sorghastrum nutans) and goldenrod add a drowsy, dreamlike quality to a late-summer walk.

A large yellow tree towers over a meadow garden

A brisk walk through the tawny autumn landscape of late October can reveal unexpected, golden discoveries.

two bluebirds on top of a green roof birdhouse

Two hundred small, sturdy houses are spread throughout the Meadow Garden, serving as homes for Eastern bluebirds (Sialia sialis), which require open habitats to survive.

A wooden path leads to a large tree with its branches covered in blue Christmas lights

Winter offers a new reason to wander through the meadow, particularly during A Longwood Christmas.

A tunnel of elegant, otherworldly warmth awaits, illuminated by nearly 20,000 bulbs.

January is a time for stillness and reflection.

large snow-covered meadow with swaths of tall dried grasses

In February we trade the vibrancy of the growing season for the muted, hushed tones of sepia, fawn, and copper.

The seed heads of Elliott's beardgrass (Andropogon gyrans), resplendent in the late-winter sunlight, remind us of the potential for new life in the coming months.

A Bit of History

The Meadow Garden was once wooded, part of a landscape where Lenni-Lenape people made clearings for their crops—a very different landscape than the one we manage today. The early European settlers in this region timbered the forest for their domestic needs, turning large fields into farmland and pasture. The tradition of agriculture continued and expanded under the direction of our founder, Pierre S. du Pont. Two of his significant purchases, the Merrick and Webb farms, became central to his agricultural activities and to the Meadow today. He planted fields of orchards and crops for livestock. Once he phased out the operations of the Longwood Farm in the 1950s, a gradual restoration began to allow for open space. In the 1970s, the land was transformed again into a meadow. In 1980-81, famed landscape architect Sir Peter Shepheard (1913-2002) improved many of the pathways that lead to the Meadow, providing new vistas to this area as well as an appreciation for the variations in landscape and horticultural design on our property.

In June of 2014, we debuted a new version of the Meadow Garden—doubling its size to 86 acres. A stunning example of ecological design by landscape architect Jonathan Alderson, it was an exciting departure from the formal gardens for which we were known. Importantly, it underscored our commitment to supporting the interconnectedness of plants and wildlife in this region of the Brandywine Valley. The ongoing stewardship of the Meadow contributes to the enhancement of the water quality of the Brandywine River watershed, providing high-quality habitats for a variety of terrestrial and aquatic organisms.