Learn and Discover

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

Explore

A Fine Vine: Clematis

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, an instructor in our Continuing Education program, as he showcases the top five Clematis in this year’s International Trial.

Watch Now

Learn

All About Vines

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

Explore Now

Discover

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.

Watch Now

Learn

Know Your Perennial Plants?

Test your plant knowledge! Can you identify these common perennials?

Take Quiz

Learn

Perennial Pals

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

Discover Now

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.

Learn Now

Discover

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.

Explore Now

Learn

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.

Take Quiz

Create

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.

Get Cooking

Explore

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.

Watch Now

Learn

Create Your Own Miniature Garden

Inspire your imagination and find joy in creating an enchanting miniature garden.

Create Now

Discover

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 and jigsaw puzzle of your own.

Learn More

Puzzle Away

Explore

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.

Watch Now

Learn

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.

Watch Now

Create

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!

Grow Now

Discover

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.

Learn Now

Play

Get Puzzled

What better way to celebrate the summer than by engaging your brain with a virtual puzzle of our dazzling Waterlily Display?

Start Solving

Grow

Kitchen Farming

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

Explore Now

Explore

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.

Watch Now

Experiment

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.

Get Cooking

Hydroponics & Plant Careers

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

Get Growing

Explore Careers in Horticulture

Discover

Killer Plants

Embark on a weird plant safari in this virtual lecture with botanist and botanical illustrator Chris Thorogood. Author of Weird Plants, Chris shares the startling real-life behavior of carnivorous plants and the one plant that still eludes him.

Watch Now

Q&A

Discover

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.

Watch Now

Learn

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.

Read Now

Learn

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.

Discover Now

Explore

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.

Start a Journal

Capture the Moment

Make a Camera

Learn

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.

Explore Now

Discover

Create a Bonsai

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

Create Now

Create

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.

Make Now

Seek

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.

Explore Now

Explore

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.

Explore Now

Solve

Mystery Plant Activity

One of Longwood’s carnivorous plants has gone missing! Who did it? How did they do it? We need your help in this curious case of the missing plant!

Find the Plant

Flower Memory Match

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

Play Now

Experiment

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.

Get Cooking

Create

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.

Dive In

Discover

Hands-on Activities

Learn how to press flowers and discover fun in your own backyard.

Press Flowers ›

Discover More ›

Experiment

Get The Kids Off The Couch And Into Nature

Try this fun experiment to make your own plant maze.

Watch Now

Imagine

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.

Learn More

Explore

Go On a Virtual Field Trip

Discover the fascinating world of carnivorous plants in this online field trip, designed for grades 3–8.

Explore Now

Experience

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.

Learn More

More Our Gardens Your Home