A Visit to a World-Class Conservatory (56K Warning)

[travis simonson]

I spent the last week visiting friends in eastern Pennsylvania and, while I was there, got a chance to visit Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA. Longwood was established in the 19th century by philanthropist and all-around totally loaded guy Pierre DuPont. It is one of the top conservatories in the United States, if not the world, and completely surpassed all of my expectations. I'm an aquatic plant guy and don't really know much about terrestrial plants or gardening, but I was simply blown away by what I saw at Longwood. If you live nearby and haven't seen it, or are planning on being in the area, I would highly recommend a visit. And I only saw their winter displays. In the spring/summer/fall they have acres and acres of outdoor gardens on display as well.

I have tried, to the best of my limited terrestrial plant taxonomical ability, to properly name the pictured plants. Please forgive (and correct ) me if I have mislabeled anything.

This is the entrance hall of the main conservatory at Longwood. The entire conservatory (a very large building itself) is covered with a glass roof. They had their Christmas display going so there were lights and Christmas related plants everywhere.




This room is filled with all manner of enormous ferns with a pool filling most of the floor space.




I really liked the color of this Poinsettia.




This one (Heliconia?) reminds me of some sort of tropical bird.




This orchid is the spitting image of some sort of funky looking bug :P







And this one reminded me of a fireman or a guy in some kind of yellow rubber raingear As you can tell, I know nothing about orchids :P




I don't know what this plant is but it has a striking translucent blue color that I'm not sure my camera managed to capture.




This plant's leaves reminded me of holiday ribbons.




Striking orange/yellow tropical flower. Again, no idea what the plant is.




Once again I don't remember the name of this plant but I have dubbed it the vomit plant :P




A bed of Diffenbachia(?) that I thought had a great pattern.




Longwood has an amazing collection of Bonsai, some of them over 100 years old and thriving. This one really reminds me of a stand of aspens in the winter. Totally surreal.




This fern was almost three feet tall and is the spitting image of aquatic Windelov Java fern.




A picture of me with a dorky smile in the entrance hall.




Well I hope you liked them. I hate to sound like an ad for the place but if you even remotely enjoy that sort of thing you should pay it a visit, you won't be disappointed

[fishfreek]

AWSOME!!!!!!

[An t-iasg]

Oh wow! Beautiful!

In the "holiday ribbons" picture, the plants on the right side look like an aquarium floor as viewed from the top - maybe the downoi plant.

The orange/yellow flower below it is a member of the bromeliad family. There are many genera in this family, and I don't know which one this is. But it's the most common one that I've seen. Our mall has it in big pots along the halls.

The "vomit" plant, [acronym:3a9d1e548e="Laughing out loud"]LOL[/acronym:3a9d1e548e], is a coleus. This plant also comes in many color variations. They are my favorite annual. I plant two or three containers of them every spring. The purple flower on the right will attract hummingbirds.

The bonsai is a good picture...if you scroll so that the bottom is out of the picture, it looks like a winter scene of full-size trees. It is amazing how much that fern looks like the lace java fern. And wow, what a handsome specimen in that last picture! Wonderful pics! It looks like you had a great time!

[Jchillin]

Wow...really amazing pics. I think you mislabled another one. That last one looks like Specialatus humanectis, a truly rare specimen.

[rich311k]

Wow absolutely incredible. Amazing.

[Fishyfanatic]

Great pics! Just if our flower beds could produce flowers like that.

[Devilishturtles]

I took a trip to Longwood Gardens when I was in High School. It truly is an amazing and awesome place to go. So many rare, different, awesome looking species. We were there 7 hours, and still didn't get to go around the whole place.

Very cool pics!

[czcz]

I cannot pick a favorite plant/picture. Amazing. I can only imagine the aquascaping ideas you had running through your mind

[Meredith]

WOW! I will have to add that to my list of things to see.

[Menagerie]

Very nice photos! Have any more pics of the Bonsai?