Longwood Gardens, Pennsylvania

Longwood Gardens is one of the largest gardens in the world—and you have to see it.

Towards the end of the pandemic, my family drove from Maryland to Longwood Gardens to spend the day wandering the grounds.

It had been four years since I had last stepped foot in Longwood Gardens, and oh man did I miss it. In case you’re somehow lost on what exactly this marvel is off the Pennsylvania highway, Longwood Gardens was opened to the general public in 1921 by Pierre S. DuPont. This is 1,077 acres of gardens, fountains, historical structures, lakes, and a meadow and it’s actually pretty affordable to go and spend the day there. I think it’s $25 for an adult ticket, which isn’t too bad, and $20 if you’re a college student like my sister and I.

Unfortunately, when we came to Longwood at this time in 2021, a chunk of the Conservatory—a building in the upper lefthand part of the grounds as you enter—was closed for renovations. The signs said that they would be closed until 2024, and so a good chunk of the indoor section, such as the ponds, were roped off, as well as a portion of the desert plants. It didn’t hamper our spirits, though, and so immediately upon entering we headed over to the indoor portion of today’s events.

The bonsai trees, which were out on display.

My sister told my family eagerly that this was her favorite part, and we saw why immediately. The Conservatory is a series of interconnected greenhouses that each house a unique type of biome. In the first section, we saw the bonsai out on display, as they were displaced due to the renovation (they’re adding in a bonsai room). Bonsai are my favorite, so I absolutely snapped quite a few shots of these bad boys. Their bonsai trees have been growing for almost fifty years now!

As soon as you enter, there was a huge central water system that added a sense of serenity to the entire setup. Because of COVID, the walkways were one-way only, so you had to navigate through the entire Conservatory through what was essentially a guided path. Each room hosts a unique set of plants, and you can wander into the desert room (or, well, the portion that was actually not sectioned off), the room that held what was mainly flora, and then the orchids which were also displaced due to the renovations.

My favorite room, which I’ve attached a picture of below, was the room that had these huge purple balls of flowers that were attached to the ceiling above a central lake system and a bunch of other flowers. In the corners of this room there were also huge pink trellises attached to the ceilings, so there were just flowers spilling from the ceiling and all around you. It was so, so beautiful.

I can’t wait to see what the renovations in there will look like! I’d definitely go back in a couple of years to rediscover the magic of all the flora and fauna that they have to offer.

Right outside of the Conservatory, they have a couple of places to dine at, such as the Terrace, but we skipped straight ahead to grab front and center seats for the fountain show. This year, the fountain show is running only from May to October, but, to be honest, if you want to see it, go at night. The daytime show is set to classical music and has some interesting numbers to it, but the night show is where it’s at apparently. We didn’t stay in the gardens all day to see it, but, basically, they set the music to pop songs and the actual fountains are colored with light—so it’s a lot more interesting at night.

The gardens directly adjacent to the Conservatory are very French. We have some classic Italian-inspired architecture, with a lot of fountains strategically placed throughout the garden to give a lot of attention to symmetry and aesthetic. Not many flowers here, but instead the beauty is in the design. We wandered the section, taking photographs, and headed quickly into the grotto within the section.

Then, behind that section, there’s a cute little historical section where you can look at the historical ways water was pumped throughout the gardens. We ventured past that to the bell tower, which you can actually climb, and the waterfall that’s tucked behind all of these fountains. There’s a hiking trail back there too, but be warned—this hiking trail and the meadow one, which is located at the other end of the gardens, are huge. The Meadow Trail is roughly four miles, which can take a long time and a lot of energy if you’re not prepared.

After that, you’re essentially done with this wing of the park. We headed over to the Meadow next, stopping at the Du Pont house. There was a little black cat roaming these parts, which my sister tried to pet, but then it flopped on its belly and tried to claw her whenever she tried to touch it. It was quite tragic, because then we saw it do the same thing minutes later to a different family. This cat had the routine truly down.

We skipped the Meadow Hiking Trail and headed over to the Italian Water Garden, which is a lesson in symmetry as well. It’s essentially a bunch of very symmetric fountains and columns, and it’s quite zen. I enjoyed that area, but a lot of people were taking photographs there so it was a bit crowded. Directly across from that is the goose pond, where there were lawn chairs set up for people to rest in on the lawn directly across from the Italian Water Garden.

There’s a bird treehouse around this part, but we completely missed it. The gardens were slowly starting to get more crowded the more we ventured, so with COVID we got a bit antsy. Obviously, more people are vaccinated now than, say, a month ago, but the park didn’t require masks unless fully vaccinated but no one was really checking. That got a bit more anxiety inducing in the enclosed sections.

The final section for us was the section filled with seasonal flowers. There was a little square fountain surrounded by these cute flowers that came in all different shades that were shaped like little bells. I wish I could remember their name! My mother bought my eldest sister some of those for Mother’s Day, and we had been obsessed with them when we bought them, and so at Longwood when we saw them, we got really excited.

The tulips were dead when we came, except for a few measly survivors that were on their way out. The wisterias were in full bloom, which was a nice photo-taking opportunity for families. There were quite a few people posing next to the wisteria trees, but not actually touching them in fear of harming the plants.

All in all, I highly recommend Longwood Gardens as a nice day trip if you want to feel peaceful and go out into nature, but also see a wide variety of plants and architectural design. I think it’s pretty affordable compared to some museums I’ve been to, and offers so much to see and do. We ended up eating outside of the gardens, since we thought the places inside were a bit pricy, and there’s quite a bit of options around to eat at. If I lived in the area, I would definitely buy a membership and just bring a book.

Something to note: the day we went was completely sold out. It was a decent day in May and people were started to get vaccinated, so that might be a plausible reason as to why it was sold out, but I recommend getting your tickets in advance if you know if you want to go. We got ours weeks ago and are glad we did so, because they weren’t allowing people to come up and buy anything. We had an early time slot (they were timed tickets) and it was sold out in advance when we arrived. So be prepared! Also if you’re coming on a hot day, bring a backpack with water bottles.