{"id":127,"date":"2008-12-15T06:30:45","date_gmt":"2008-12-15T14:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/garden\/?p=127"},"modified":"2015-11-24T07:33:00","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T15:33:00","slug":"longwood-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/longwood-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"Longwood Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONGWOOD CHRISTMAS<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sometimes you just have to get out of town.\u00a0 This is especially true when the skies, the landscape and the economy are all equally gray.\u00a0 Last week I felt as if I were stranded on an island in a sea of grayness.\u00a0 I decided that the only remedy for the situation was to ask a good friend to join me on a one-day vacation to a non-gray place. \u00a0Not having the airfare for Bermuda, I chose Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Longwood Gardens is one of the great botanic gardens of the world.\u00a0 The former home of philanthropist Pierre du Pont and his wife, Alice, the estate is the antithesis of gray at any time of the year.\u00a0 This is especially true during the holidays.\u00a0 On the grounds, prominent trees are bedecked with colored lights; pots and planters are filled with holiday greens.\u00a0 A seasonal menagerie of topiary reindeer romps through the normally staid topiary garden.\u00a0 The Garden Shop is filled with bright ornaments and garden-themed gifts, all in the holiday mode.\u00a0 But the real spectacle is inside the conservatory, where all the distinct areas–from the ballroom to the fruit house–are decked out in seasonal finery.\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 People just don’t build conservatories like those at Longwood any more.\u00a0 When you enter the garden’s East Conservatory at this time of the year, you are overwhelmed with warmth, scent, humidity and seasonal brightness.\u00a0 Masses of amaryllis in full bloom combine with poinsettias, bright red Rieger begonias and an array of other plants to carpet the giant space’s beds with color.\u00a0 White-flowered pascutta, a notably modest member of the same euphorbia family as poinsettias, creates a frothy, low-growing backdrop for the flashier plants.\u00a0 At the far end of the conservatory, an enormous decorated Douglas fir slowly revolves.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Trees and wreathes pop up throughout the indoor areas.\u00a0 In the orchid display room, an orchid-bedecked wreath hangs from the wall.\u00a0 It makes a lovely focal point, provided you can take your eyes off the scores of potted cattleyas, dendrobiums, miltonias and other showy specimens, all in full bloom.\u00a0 Next to the orchid wreath and other every specialty wreath or tree, is a placard describing how it was constructed.\u00a0 Presumably if I had plenty of blooming orchids, a large wire frame and a small truckload of sphagnum moss, I could replicate the orchid wreath at home.\u00a0 I know that while such a thing is theoretically possible, it is highly unlikely.\u00a0 The idea makes for a nice daydream, though.\u00a0 I felt the same way about the living poinsettia wreath and the wreath composed entirely of red begonias. <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I was especially impressed with the living bromeliad “tree”\u009d in the cascade garden.\u00a0 It never occurred to me that a potted bromeliad, viewed from above, would appear star-shaped.\u00a0 Apparently this did occur to the designers at Longwood, because the bromeliad “tree”\u009d consisted of potted specimens wired to a frame in such a way that each star-shaped leaf array faced outward.\u00a0 It was a revelation that may affect my holiday decorating schemes, not to mention my tropical plant buying habits, for years to come. <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Anyone who has ever filled a hanging basket can appreciate the degree of professional skill needed to create hanging baskets of blooming Christmas cactus so lush and full that they appear spherical.\u00a0\u00a0 These large, abundant baskets were suspended above the “acacia passage”\u009d, a narrow portion of the greenhouse that also featured an array of fragrant white lilies.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 At any time of the year, you would be hard pressed to find any display at Longwood that has a single straggly looking specimen or more than a few petals out of place.\u00a0 This is especially true at holiday time, and as we walked through the public spaces we saw workers wheeling carts full of fresh plants to various areas.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As I looked at another “tree”\u009d composed of potted geraniums, salvia, lavender and marigolds, I realized that you can really make a tree out of any pleasing combination of plants–provided you have a frame, a lot of wire, an abundant amount of creativity and a fair amount of patience.\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Most people can’t do a Longwood-style display because they lack the enormous space and abundant resources.\u00a0 Each visitor, though, can take away enough inspiration to make his or her home a little more festive during the holidays.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Longwood Gardens Christmas Show continues through January 11, 2009.\u00a0\u00a0The Gardens are located at 1001 Longwood Road, Kennett Square, PA 19348.\u00a0 For further information, write to Longwood Gardens, P.O. Box 501, Kennett Square, PA 19348.\u00a0\u00a0 The Longwood Gardens website is at <\/font><\/font>www.longwoodgardens.org<\/font><\/a>.\u00a0 Tickets for the Christmas exhibition can be ordered online.\u00a0 For further information, call (610) 388-1000.\u00a0 Choose extension 100 for ticket orders. <\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LONGWOOD CHRISTMAS \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sometimes you just have to get out of town.\u00a0 This is especially true when the skies, the landscape and the economy are all equally gray.\u00a0 Last week I felt as if I were stranded on an island in a sea of grayness.\u00a0 I decided that the only remedy for the situation was … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-winter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1657,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127\/revisions\/1657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}