Longwood Garden -- Roses and Orchids

Longwood Garden is located in Pennsylvania, and is considered one of the premiere botanical gardens in the US. It is spread across a thousand acres and consists of spectacular fountains, conservatory, historical musical-organs and buildings, meadows, forests, and innumerable gardens. Throughout the year it has lots of shows, exhibitions, various Philharmonic shows and fireworks. Some of its spectacular shows are autumn lantern shows (when tens of thousands of lanterns float in the water, hung in the air), Christmas lights (when lights hung from trees and everywhere creating a magical landscape), Chrysanthemum festival (when you not only have those small mum plants that you see in the garden, but even shrubs and trees full of all the spectacular color of the flower) and Labor Day fireworks. You can find more information about the garden here. The garden is easily accessible from NYC, NJ, Delaware, Philadelphia and Connecticut as it is located within two to three hours drive from these places/cities. We went there to enjoy the Labor Day fireworks on Saturday (August 31, 2013).

Rose Garden:
The rose-garden at Longwood is not that big as that in NY Botanical Garden. It has only couple of rose species compared to more than 650 species and more than 6000 rose plants in NYBG. Also the rose-garden is separated from a big central court-yard type area where the whole area is surrounded by rose arbors and arrangement of plants in pots.

Rose-arbors though no roses are blooming. Second-picture shows ground-cover rose (Rosa Meipsidue). It was amazing. I never saw roses as ground-cover! The third picture is that of large-flowered climber rose (Rosa Meiviolon) Floribunda Rose (Rosa Harsherry) in the first picture. Hybrid Rugosa Rose (Rosa Jens Munk) in the second picture, Hybrid Tea Rose (Rosa BARbetod -- Bella Di Todi) in the third picture. This one had really good smell. Hybrid Tea Rose (Rosa Meibedull) in the first picture, Can you read the name of the rose in the second picture? Gold Medal Grandiflora rose in the third picture. Easy-Does-It Floribunda rose in the first picture. Belinda's Dream Shrub Rose in the second picture. Mister Lincoln Hybrid Tea rose in the third picture. Belinda's Dream Shrub rose in the last two pictures. Many of these roses smell really beautiful, but I have forgotten which ones. I was just suffering from information overload :-).

Orchids: Longwood has a huge collection of orchids. They can be found at various locations in the conservatory and in open-ground. However, a whole large section of the conservatory is especially designated for orchids. Here are the pictures of the orchids from that section. Display of orchids in metal pots along the wall of a huge hall and a corridor.

It has a huge collection of palm, cycad, ferns and other exquisite plants. According to its website, Exquisite flowers, majestic trees, dazzling fountains, extravagant conservatory, starlit theatre, thunderous organ—all describe the magic of Longwood Gardens, a horticultural showstopper where the gardening arts are encased in classic forms and enhanced by modern technology. More information and pictures would come in later posts. It also has a huge store and sells really nice perennials, among other things, which I do not find in any garden-centers in NJ. They are also cheap :-). So, I ended up buying Sneezeweed, NY-Aster, Windflower, Rose Mallow and Bluebeard.