Go behind the scenes with stories about our amazing plants and people, read with us, or explore our free online offerings for all ages. Find activities especially designed for kids here. Subscribe to our blog for exciting new content delivered to your inbox each week.

Children’s Trees Spotlight
One of our favorite displays every year is our Children’s Trees, featuring homemade ornaments from some of our youngest friends. This year, we asked our Members to create ornaments with the children in their lives. As always, the results were imaginative, poignant, and brimming with the spirit of the season. We share just a few of the many fabulous creations we received.

The Eyes Have It

There’s No Mistaking the Inspiration for this Reindeer

This Wild Ride Goes Out on a Limb

Now That’s Holiday Sparkle

Oh, Christmas Tree, Oh, Christmas Tree ...

We Couldn’t “Bear” to Leave this One Out!

Gnome for the Holidays

A Year to Remember

Holiday Plant Walk
Conservatory Manager Karl Gercens continues to share plant highlights from our Conservatory display. Do you have a holiday cactus at home? Karl shares his pick for the very best holiday cactus cultivar and much more!

Holiday Plant Tour
Since you can’t experience our Conservatory in person, we asked Conservatory Manager Karl Gercens to share a few of his favorite plants gracing our holiday display. Some of his picks make great house plants, too! Do you have any of them in your home?

It's a Wrap
Nothing is more enticing than a beautifully wrapped gift. As you prepare to wrap a few gifts of your own this holiday season, why not make your packages extra special by using hand-crafted wrapping paper? We’ll show you how to create one-of-a-kind wrap using natural materials such as vegetables from your kitchen, fallen leaves, twigs, or shells.

Holiday Puzzle
One of the many highlights of A Longwood Christmas is our Music Room display. This year, it’s decked out to be reminiscent of a Christmas morning, complete with packages and stockings full of wonderful surprises. Recreate the beauty in this fun puzzle.

Edible Ornaments for our Feathered Friends
The Wildlife Tree, adorned with ornaments to feed our furry and feathered friends, is a cherished part of our holiday display. Gather the family together and create your own Wildlife Tree by making birdseed ornaments in this fun activity for all ages. How many different types of birds will your ornaments attract?

Floral Design Tip: Get Wired
Join our floral design educator Jane Godshalk as she demonstrates how to make a “chicken wire pillow.” Want to learn more? Sign up for our new online course, Floral Design Basics, in which you will learn to create beautiful arrangements at your own pace.

Explore Diversity of Plants
Plants are amazing. They live on every continent, are incredibly diverse, and make adaptations to their environment. Join botanical expert and Longwood educator Jeff Jabco as he shares some interesting plants from environments as diverse as the desert to the tropics and their unusual adaptations. Plant diversity is just one of the topics in our new online course: Understanding Plants that is designed to help you improve your plant ID skills through studying leaves, stems, flowers, and fruits. This course covers important “groundwork” for anyone hoping to become a better gardener.

Connect with Conifers
While deciduous trees are beginning to drop their leaves, coniferous trees or evergreens have needles that remain on the branches year-round! Discover some fun facts about conifers, practice recognizing conifers in your own neighborhood, and then get creative with some natural materials in this fun activity for kids.

All Aboard!
Our Garden Railway is a favorite fall feature in our Gardens. Including four tracks and 31 locomotives, steam engines, diesel engines, and specialty engines, it is an engaging blend of horticulture, engineering, and lighthearted fun that holds a special place in the hearts of many.

Fun with Topiaries
Learn all about topiary--the art of clipping shrubs or trees into shapes. First, discover shrubs growing in your backyard and try your hand at creating a topiary of your own.

Let’s Get Cooking
Join our Executive Chef Will Brown as he shares one of his favorite recipes from 1906 that you can easily recreate at home and add your own twist to with ingredients from your garden.

Pressed Flower Cards
Discover the important relationship between flowers and pollinators, then bring the beauty of nature indoors by pressing and drying plant material to make personalized greeting cards.

Lights, Camera, Learning
From exuberant students dressed in white lab coats in Mexico to hearing-impaired students signing through an ASL interpreter in Kentucky, learn about our innovative Virtual Field Trip program—free to K–12 schools—and experience a day in the life of our virtual educator (a recipient of the 2020 Pinnacle Award from the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration) .... and register now to bring our Gardens directly to your students.

Kids Coloring Postcards
Share your love of Longwood with these printable coloring postcards created by our very own Longwood Fellow Becky Paxton!

All About Plants Free Course
Explore the world of plants with our new, free online learning course, The World of Plants: Exploring Horticulture. Journey the breadth of the plant kingdom, follow the evolutionary pathway to plant diversity, learn the basics of plant nomenclature and plant identification, and go behind the scenes as our horticulture experts share their passion and insight.

Giants Among Us
Meet Pierre’s Poplar—one of the tallest trees at Longwood Gardens. In this short video, get a bird’s eye view as Longwood’s Arborists attempt to measure this champion tree.

All About Acer palmatum
Learn about a favorite tree of many home landscapers: Acer palmatum (Japanese maple). Elisabeth Meyer, of North Carolina State University, shares characteristics of, and tips on how to identify, the many varieties of this amazing tree.

A Fine Vine
Clematis are among the most decorative and spectacular of all the flowering vines. They come in a variety of colors, forms, and foliage. Join Jeff Jabco, as he showcases the top five Clematis in this year’s International Trial.

Terrific Trees
Discover how to identify trees in your neighborhood and have fun doing it!

Go Wild for Columbine
Learn about Aquilegia canadensis, also known as wild columbine, in this informative photo story. You can learn about more perennials for your garden in Annuals, Perennials, and Vines: Identification and Use, our online course offered with North Carolina State University.

All About Vines
Discover how vines climb, create paper vines, and even try your hand at growing your own pumpkin patch.

Perennial Pals
Kids can discover how to recognize common perennials and learn about the different parts of a flower.

Know Your Perennial Plants?
Test your plant knowledge! Can you identify these common perennials?

Flowering Annuals
In this activity, kids will discover how to recognize some common annuals and learn about the life cycle of flowering plants. Then they can get planting and experiment with growing bean seeds.

Plant Focus: Calibrachoa
Calibrachoa is a great summer annual that you might mistake for a petunia, but it has a style and beauty all its own. This presentation by Elisabeth Meyer of NC State University, is part of Annuals, Perennials, and Vines: Identification and Use, our online course now open for registration, offered in partnership with NC State University.

Mushroom Soup Madness
We are well-known for our award-winning Kennett Square Mushroom Soup. Try your hand at making it at home with this recipe from our chefs at 1906.

Test Your Plant ID
How well do you know your sun-loving plants? Test yourself in this interactive quiz, which is part of our All-Purpose Annuals course.

Create Your Own Miniature Garden
Inspire your imagination and find joy in creating an enchanting miniature garden.

A Botanical Paradise
Join Longwood Fellow Barbara Wheeler on a fascinating virtual journey through her home country of New Zealand. From the diverse topography to the interesting animal species to the fascinating plant life, discover the majesty and beauty of New Zealand.

Virtual Plant Walk
Have rocky soil or moist conditions? Looking for a plant deer won’t eat? Join horticulturist Karl Gercens as he introduces you to some plants that may just fit the bill.

Animal Art
Did you know we have more than 100 animal statues scattered throughout our Gardens? Learn about a few of our favorites, then create an animal-inspired sculpture.

Everything About Aquatics
Delve into the amazing world of aquatics in this free online course. Designed for beginners and experts, learn how to select, care for, and create your own aquatic display in this engaging multimedia course.

Longwood Lecture Series: Modern Horticulture in Historic Landscapes
How do you revitalize a landscape? Our VP of Horticulture Sharon Loving and West8 Landscape Architect Jelle Therry share some of the challenges. One thing is certain: Trees play an important role.

Kitchen Farming
Start growing your own vegetables right in your kitchen using common produce found in your home.

Make Your Own Grass Head
In this fun activity for kids, plant some grass seed on a fun form, watch it grow, then trim its hair!

An Entertaining Tradition
Pierre S. and Alice du Pont loved to entertain in the Gardens. Join in the tradition and try your hand at a recipe from the du Pont family cookbook.

Conservation and Culture in the Amazon
Join National Geographic Explorers as they take you on a photographic journey through the Amazon in this informative and inspiring video presentation. Learn about living with the indigenous people of the Amazon and their unique cultures, how indigenous groups regard their trees, both for physical and spiritual uses, and see how this reverence can protect both people and their ecosystems.

Our Carnivorous Collection
With their visual appeal and botanical interest, it is little wonder that carnivorous plants have long had a place on display in our Gardens.

Hydroponics & Plant Careers
Create a self-watering planter and discover the many rewarding careers you can pursue in the plant world.

Get Outside
Get the family back to nature with these fun activities designed to connect you to the wonder and beauty of the natural world.

The Weird, The Wild, and The Wonderful
From the driest deserts of the Middle East to the misty mountains of tropical Borneo, travel the globe with plant hunter and illustrator Chris Thorogood to discover nature’s most unusual and amazing plants in this presentation designed especially for grades 3-12.

Create a Bonsai
Our own bonsai expert Kevin Bielicki demonstrates how to create a bonsai from nursery stock.

Spring’s Hidden Gems
There are some often-overlooked woody plants whose blooms and foliage put on a dazzling spring show. Find out which hidden gems to add to your landscape.

Indoor Family #PlantHunt
Plants are not just outdoors—they are everywhere! Go on this fun hunt to find objects made from plants all around your house.

Celebrate Trees
Learn some fun facts about trees, planting and caring for them, and meet some of our smallest trees in this virtual field trip for kids grades 3–8.

Mystery Plant Activity

A Plant’s Life
Explore the life cycle of a plant from seed to flower. Go behind-the-scenes and discover how our horticulturists prepare our spectacular displays in this fun online class for grades 3-8.

Sharing our Legacy of Entertaining
Pierre S. and Alice du Pont loved to entertain in the Gardens. Since we entertain you in our Gardens, why not head into your own kitchen and recreate a recipe from the du Pont family cookbook.

Kokedama at Home
Kokedama (Japanese for “moss ball”) is a decorative style of potting plants in a ball of moss and displaying them in a dish or suspended in the air. Make your own kokedama with this easy step-by-step guide.

Hands-on Activities
Learn how to press flowers and discover fun in your own backyard.

Flower Memory Match
Test your memory and learn some new flower names in this matching game for the whole family.

Read a Good Plant Book
Join our Community Read and dive into the wacky, weird, and wild world of plants with one of these books: Semiosis by Sue Burke, Weird Plants by Chris Thorogood, and The Enormous Potato by Aubrey Davis. Ebooks are available for borrowing via most public libraries.

Floral Design With Orchids
Join acclaimed floral designer Cres Motzi as she shares tips and tricks for creating floral arrangements with orchids and other materials.

Get The Kids Off The Couch And Into Nature
Try this fun experiment to make your own plant maze.

Go On a Virtual Field Trip
Discover the fascinating world of carnivorous plants in this online field trip, designed for grades 3–8.

Learn Everything About Orchids
Through video lectures, recorded presentations, discussion forums, and more, we invite you to join our free online course Everything About Orchids. Learn about our collection and how to enjoy orchids in your own home.
Enjoy video and image highlights of the colorful emergence of spring.
From favorite past performances to a chat with a gardener, delve into these uniquely Longwood experiences.