Tag Archives: longwood gardens

The cure for the winter blues…

Longwood Gardens of course!
We braved the frigid temps and practically ran from the car to the conservatory in search of some cheery color on Saturday. So sit back and relax and think of warmer days as you look at these pretty flowers…

I like this one below called coral pea.
The flowers were on vines that thickly covered several archways (see last photo).

I swoon for sweet peas!

Bouganvilla reminds me of a trip to Jamaica.

You can almost smell them, right?

Mother Natures works of art!

I’d like to pour a nice glass of wine, grab a book and sit on that patio set all afternoon!
Can you find it? It’s a little hidden. The fountain in the foreground made such lovely music.

©Copyright 2009 by Jennifer MacNeill-Traylor. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

Longwood at Christmas – Part 1

Longwood Gardens at Christmas, it doesn’t get any better than this. Seriously, if you are within 2-3 hours of Philadelphia, you NEED to make the trip. You’ll thank me later. Trust me.
I took so many photos, I have to break this up a bit. So here we have part one. All photos taken in the conservatory.

I don’t even care for poinsettias but these pink ones had me swooning!

These peachy ones were gorgeous too! Don’t you love how they matched the berries?

There was a whole room full of kid decorated trees. Very nicely done! Swooning over the cyclamen here. I don’t even really like pink…

Table for two? Yes, please!

All sorts of trees every where you look. This one was in the cactus/silver room.

My favorite tree. Beautiful blue morpho butterflies all around. Stunning glass ornaments too.

Upon closer inspection, the butterflies actually moved!!! It was beyond magical.


Planning your trip yet? :^)
Stay tuned for part 2 – the outside lights!

©Copyright 2009 by Jennifer MacNeill-Traylor. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

Summer at Longwood

Took the day off on Monday for a trip to Longwood Gardens. Thought I would share a few pictures…

Got an old stump? I think this is a great idea for a birdbath. Seemed well received by the Longwood bird residents too!

My favorite of Longwood’s summer displays are the water lilies – hands down. So many gorgeous dragonflies to look at too.

One of my favorite new flowers (new to me that is) – Throatwort. I think that I am not in the right zone to grow this though. Maybe as an annual?

Another favorite I hadn’t heard of before, Showy Hebe. I just adore purples and blues in the garden…

Flowers… are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

©Copyright 2009 by Jennifer MacNeill-Traylor. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

Baby Tomatoes!

First I will admit openly that I cheated. I didn’t start my seeds, I bought a rather large tomato plant at the garden center, Groff’s to be specific, they are awesome ($1.99 perennials – can you believe it?!). I was on my morning garden walk today and spotted two tiny tomato babies, I can’t believe it! I didn’t even notice the plant had flowers. Now I just have my fingers crossed that the warm weather sticks around and my plants grow up nice and healthy.

Every year I decided I will plant one or two new types of bulbs in the fall. Last year I chose allium. I am so in love with this flower. I may have to plant more this year. You can see why I love my new camera – macro rocks:)


The family that lived here before us planted 9 azaleas of all different colors in the front of the house but this bright pink one in the back is my favorite.

I also wanted to share an amazing blog with everyone that reads my posts. As you know, I love Longwood Gardens. As I walk the gardens I’m always wondering about the behind the scenes activities. Well, wonder no longer! This blog was created by the gardeners there to give you a glimpse of how they work their magic! Everything from how they plant 170,000+ bulbs every year to all about the 11 cats that live there. I’m so glad I found it!
Longwood Gardens: Behind the Plants

©Copyright 2009 by Jennifer MacNeill-Traylor. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

Longwood on May Day

I know, my readers must be sick of me sharing pictures of Longwood Gardens but what better place to visit on May Day!
It was a little rainy today but the drops held off for most of the time that we were there. The tulips were in full swing so I thought I would share a few pictures and a really short video of just a tiny snippet of the gorgeous flowers.


One of these tulips is doing her own thing!


I need to make this! Can’t you picture some flowering vine growing up the corners?

Plants give us oxygen for the lungs and for the soul. ~Linda Solegato

©Copyright 2009 by Jennifer MacNeill-Traylor. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

Good Friday

Click on each photo for a larger image.

It has indeed been a very Good Friday. I had been wanting to go to the Brandywine River Museum to catch the exhibit on Edward Gorey for a few weeks now and the weatherman was calling for rain today so I thought it would be the perfect time to go. I don’t think I was allowed to take photos but there wasn’t really anyone around. Here are some envelopes he drew on and sent to friends. I thought it would have been cool to have one of these.

Because I was being sneaky I didn’t get many photos. I really wanted to take one of a man and a dragon exchanging gifts but there were a few people in the room. I was surprised that most of his pen and ink drawings were very small, about 5″ x 7″. Some really fun artwork and they had his big old beaver coat there too.

A cool NC Wyeth Painting I don’t remember seeing before. It was called something like “Brigham the Famous Buffalo Hunting Horse”. Don’t quote me on that title, I just thought it was neat that the guy was using no tack.

And the cool bronze pig down by the Brandywine River.

So after we were done with the museum we decided to head over to Longwood Gardens since we were in the area, have a membership and it hadn’t started raining (it never did rain). A few varieties of tulips were up as were some other springtime flowers. I was in love with this purple one. There were loads of pretty blues and purples! I want a wisteria bonsai and a weeping redbud!

A beautiful Canada Goose in a pond by the meadow. His mate was nesting nearby.

As if the day couldn’t get any better, my neighbor down the street at Goat Flower Farm had several perrenials to share with me and a ton of new baby fainting and pygmy goats. Also saw a hawk on her fence. I think it’s a Cooper’s Hawk or Sharp Shinned Hawk. Here are my two favorite photos I took this evening.

Okay, now I AM really tired! Off to have that glass of wine and put up my tired dogs:) I have a ton of things to plant tomorrow (oops, I forgot to mention all the lovely flowers my mom gave me for Easter when we stopped by the shop she works at!).

©Copyright 2009 by Jennifer MacNeill-Traylor. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

Longwood Gardens Orchids

We went to Longwood Gardens over the weekend to see what was blooming. Oddly enough it’s one of my 3 year olds favorite places (and mine too). Not much going on outside – some crocus, aconite and a very cool Korean rhododendron that had no foilage but beautiful purple blossoms. Inside they were having a big orchid event so I snapped a bunch of photos of some really gorgeous flowers to share…






©Copyright 2009 by Jennifer MacNeill-Traylor. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

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