Longwood Gardens

zWelcome to Travel Tuesday! After a couple weeks of virtually trekking through the wilderness with me, I’m bringing you back to civilization with a virtual stroll through Longwood Gardens!

Longwood Gardens

Just as an advance warning, you will be seeing a lot of this one because it’s one of my favorite places at these gardens.

Address: 1001 Longwood Rd, Kennett Square, PA 19348
Hours: 10am – 11pm
Admission: $25 for adults

Longwood Gardens was founded by Pierre du Pont in 1906. There are nearly 400 acres open to the public in these botanical gardens! Plan on doing a lot of walking!

It was fall when I came here so they had this beautiful display up.

I most recently came here for my friend’s wedding, so my photos are centered around the places we walked through to get to where she had her ceremony and where her photographer was taking pictures of her and her now-husband!

Yay, it’s us!!!

There are accessible paths available, but no shuttle service is provided other than the one that runs between Perice-du-Pont House + Webb Farmhouse.

I’d recommend checking their website before you go so that you can see what’s in bloom and check out any must-see’s for while you’re there! You can also access their map online.

One of my favorite spots in these gardens = the Italian Water Garden (open mid-April through mid-October). Every part of it was planned by du Pont himself–from the sculptures (inspired by his Italy travels) to the fact that the northernmost pools would need to be longer so that it’d appear symmetrical from the viewing deck.

There’s so much to see here that I definitely would not mind coming back again and again — there’s an idea garden, the open air theatre, a rose garden, cascade garden, waterlily display, acacia passage, Peirce’s Woods + Peirce’s Park, an orchid house, a music room…even an indoor children’s garden!

There are often events + performances there too, including the Open Air Theatre Fountains (fountains set to music) and a Performance series that brings in leading artists (organ music, vocalists, folk rock, choirs, classical guitar, etc.).

60-minute guided group tours are available (for 15+ ticketed guests). They also have workshops on landscape design, photography, botanical art, how to care for/identify different types of plants, etc.

• Plan to spend at least 3-4 hours there. (You can stay as long as you want. Re-entry currently isn’t permitted though.)
• Make sure you dress for the weather (layers + comfortable walking shoes would be a good idea)! I was there for a wedding but definitely brought different shoes to walk around in.
• Use common sense and refrain from climbing trees, picking plants/flowers, jumping into the fountains, etc.
• Do not feed the wildlife or sunbathe in the gardens.
• Balloons and bubbles can damage wildlife and plant life — don’t bring these!

• Have you ever been to a botanical garden? This is my 5th one! You can check out the other ones I’ve been to in the related posts!
• Totally random, but just wanted to comment that it’s 2/22/22 today!