If possible, make the most of business trips and try to fit in visits to beautiful and interesting places in between meetings and events - I do.
During my latest trip and LIVE appearances at QVC in West Chester, Pennsylvania, I had the opportunity to visit the exquisite Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square. Longwood Gardens has a rich and varied history. For thousands of years, the native Lenape tribe used the area for fishing, hunting and farming. In 1700, Quaker farmer, George Peirce, purchased 400-acres of the English-claimed land and began developing the property. His decedents eventually created an arboretum of some of the finest trees in the nation. Unfortunately, as years passed, heirs lost interest and the land suffered decades of neglect until 1906, when it was obtained by Pierre du Pont - entrepreneur, businessman, philanthropist and member of the prominent du Pont family. Pierre's passion and vision created the groundwork for what is now Longwood Gardens - home to many spectacular botanical collections including nine-thousand species and varieties of plants spread across more than 1,100 acres - all wonderfully maintained by hundreds of employees, students and volunteers. I encourage you to visit the next time you're in the area.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
Beautiful specimens fill the main conservatory. The hanging baskets contain cape-primrose, Streptocarpus ‘Concord Blue.’ The columns are covered with Creeping Fig, Ficus pumila, Triangle Palm, Dypsis decaryi, Hybrid Cineraria, and Pericallis x hybrida ‘Sunsenepiba’ Sunetti® Pink Bicolor. And below, the turf is made from tall fescue, Festuca arundinacea ‘Jaguar 3.’
These hanging baskets are filled with Guzmania ‘Juliette,’ Dracaena marginata ‘Tarzan,’ Monkey-Flower, Diplacus grandiflorus, and Bartlettina sordida.
At Longwood Gardens, every space of the conservatory is filled. Here, the hanging baskets contain Phalaenopsis hybrid Areca Palm, Dypsis lutescens.
These are Asiatic hybrid Lilies, Lilium ‘Tiny Skyline.’ There are also white vein arrow leaf, Phyllotaenium lindenii, and broom, Genista x spachiana.
The Conservatory houses about 5,500 plant varieties in its indoor gardens – there is something to see in every corner.
Above the flooded floor of the Exhibition Hall in the Main Conservatory are hanging baskets of cape-primrose, Streptocarpus ‘Concord Blue.’ On both sides are potted Australian Tree Ferns, Cyathea cooperi. I am quite fond of these tree ferns and have several in my own collection. During the summer I love to display them outdoors.
This palette of blue and purple shows Longwood Hybrid Cineraria Pericallis x hybrida, blue poppy Meconopsis ‘Lingholm,’ and Pride-of-Madeira, Echium candicans ‘Select Blue.’
These are striking cape-primrose blooms, Streptocarpus ‘Grape Ice’ with deep purple blossoms, intricate veining, and pure white centers and petal edges.
In the Acacia Passage, one sees River Wattle, Acacia cognata, and in the containers, Guzmania ‘Hilda’ and Anthurium ‘Anthglodig’ Florida.
The orchid display at Longwood Gardens features at least 250 Phaleanopsis and Cattleya orchids on a wall, urns of colorful Cymbidiums in the Acacia Passage, and hundreds of Vanda orchids in the Silver Garden.
This display case shows Phalaenopsis Sogo Yukidian ‘V3’ and assorted x Rhyncholaeliocattleya orchids.
Hard to miss these hanging baskets of baby Burro’s tail Sedum, Sedum burrito, cape-primrose, and more Streptocarpus ‘Concord Blue.’
I have many Clivias in my greenhouse, so they catch my eye. This is Clivia miniata ‘Longwood Debutante.’
And this is called Tower-of-jewels, Echium wildpretii. Also known as red bugloss, this is a biennial flowering plant native to the Canary Islands. It can grow up to 10 feet tall and is admired for its rosettes of leaves and colorful flowers.
Bonsai is the Japanese art of growing and shaping miniature trees in containers. This is Bonsai of Camellia ‘Minato-no-haru.’ It was started in 2006.
And this is Bonsai of Bay Laurel, Laurus nobilis. Training on this specimen began in 2022.
At Longwood, there is a shop dedicated to the care and maintenance of nearly 200 bonsai trees and more than 500 artisanal planters. Longwood’s experts, visiting artists, and volunteers use special tools to prune and groom the Bonsai using a variety of techniques.
Copper wire is used to guide new growth and develop each tree’s design.
And here I am with Chad Davis, Associate Vice President of Conservatories and Jim Sutton, Associate Director of Display Design at Longwood Gardens.
While there I also had time for a quick bite at 1906 at Longwood Gardens, a restaurant named in honor of the year Pierre S. du Pont purchased the original grounds. The restaurant is open to Longwood Gardens visitors and offers seasonal fare with locally sourced and sustainable ingredients.
This is 1906 Executive Chef, George Murkowicz.
Among the delicious foods we enjoyed: this Pull-Apart Brioche with garden seeds, honey butter, and local sea salt.
This is their Little Gem Salad with green goddess herbs, artichoke, and Caesar dressing.
We also had the Shoestring Frites with rosemary and parmesan.
For dessert, we tried this Hazelnut Profiterole with caramel, cinnamon, and plum.
This Neapolitan includes chocolate biscotti, strawberry ice cream, and vanilla namelaka, a creamy, velvety, slightly firm style of ganache.
If you like donuts, you will love beignets. These were served with strawberry or peanut butter and sprinkled with powdered sugar.
This is their panna cotta with passionfruit, coconut and a scoop of mango-Lime sorbet.
The 1906 Lemon & Lavender includes Meyer lemon almond cake, lavender sorbet, and pavlova.
And this is called Carmelia – chocolate mousse, espresso caramel, and a bed of cocoa soil. It was a wonderful visit. If you’re in the area, please stop by Longwood Gardens this spring – it’s magical.
Maintaining old fruit trees sometimes requires more than just pruning, grooming, and feeding. Large, heavy limbs may also need support in order to continue holding all the many fruits they produce.
On my farm, I have some very old apple trees that were here long before I moved to the property. A few in particular are just outside my Winter House. These trees bear an abundance of crisp, juicy fruits every year. Like all my trees these are well cared for, but recently I noticed their limbs were long, heavy and in need of added support before they broke, so I asked my gardeners to prop them up right away using a simple, natural, and very successful technique.
Enjoy these photos.
I am so proud of all the fruit trees I have at my farm. Among them – my many apple trees that bear bounties of fruits every year for all the hand pressed cider my granddaughter makes.
I have a corner of my orchard dedicated to all kinds of apple trees including Baldwin, Black Oxford, Cortland, Cox’s Orange Pippin, Esopus Spitzenburg, Fuji, Golden Russet, Grimes Golden, Honeycrisp, Liberty, Redfield, Roxbury Russet, Windham Russet, and more.
Some of my apple trees are original to the farm. I’d like to think that Mrs. Ruth Sharp, who owned the farm before I did, enjoyed the sweet, juicy apples that these trees bear as much as I do.
This grove is also original to the farm. It is located just behind my herbaceous peony garden.
This week, I noticed the large limbs looked particularly long and heavy. As a preventative measure before any broke, I asked my head gardener to put upright supports under all the horizontal limbs.
The first step is to measure the space under each limb in need of bracing.
Phurba Sherpa from my outdoor grounds crew went out to the back field, where there were already several dead trees waiting to be put through the tub grinder, and cut some appropriately sized “crutches”
Phurba looked for those with natural “V” notches that could cradle the limbs.
Once all the crutches were brought back to the trees, Phurba dug shallow holes where the supports would be positioned.
He also gathered a couple of small, flat stones to place against and under the tree support to prevent it from sinking into the loamy soil.
The stones placed strategically at the base of the support will also keep it from falling due to strong winds.
Here’s Phurba checking a crutch out for size… and it fits!
Ryan pushes a crutch under another limb.
Upright supports like this made from tree branches blend right in and actually look like trees themselves.
It is crucial that every new crutch be checked to ensure it is tightly in place.
Ryan was able to knock this support out of place, so he made a few adjustments to make sure it was secure.
This one is wedged in perfectly – strong winds nor heavy fruits will bring it down.
The strong “V” notches will hold the limbs well for several years.
In total, Ryan and Phurba secured about seven tree supports. This did not take long at all, but will save the tree and prevent any broken limbs in the future.
These trees may need a little more support to keep them looking their best, but they give me so much more in return – good, delicious apples to eat out of hand or press into cider – they’re a good thing.
Here at my farm, the garden beds are changing every single day - more and more flowers are bursting with color and energy.
Many spring-blooming bulbs are characterized as "good for naturalizing," meaning they will self-seed, multiply, and come up year after year, spreading informally throughout the landscape. Among them - daffodils, croci, Galanthus, Puschkinia, Eranthis, Chionodoxa, Ornithogalum, and others. These naturalizing flowers require minimal care, attract pollinators, and enhance the overall ecosystem. I plant thousands of naturalizing bulbs every autumn and what comes up every spring is breathtaking.
Enjoy these photos.
Every spring, we all brim with excitement when the first flowers pop up through the ground. Croci is always one of the first.
But it’s even more exciting to see how they have multiplied and naturalized. These crocuses spread more and more every year in a back field of my farm.
These dark purple croci are near my Basket House beneath a grove of bald cypress trees. Everyone notices them in bloom.
They also spread informally over time – all by themselves.
The white croci in the tree pits of my allée of pin oaks have been growing and naturalizing here for more than 12 years.
These flowers are among the earliest of bloomers with their creamy white petals and bright orange stamens.
One of the first blooming groups of crocus is outside my gym building. And every spring it looks bigger and bigger. Naturalizing is a long-term plan, though some plants will spread faster than others.
Dwarf irises naturalize. They form clumps as they thrive and multiply. Irises spread through underground rhizomatous stems, filling the garden with color.
And among the most popular naturalizers are the daffodils. We’re still a few weeks from seeing my entire border in bloom, but here are some that are already up. Daffodils thrive in naturalized landscapes. And they spread without any maintenance.
My long daffodil border is broken up into various groupings – different varieties, different shapes and sizes, and different blooming times.
There are up to 40-species of daffodils, and more than 27-thousand registered daffodil hybrids.
The foliage of more daffodils is growing fast – it won’t be long before these are also in bloom.
Puschkinia is a genus of three known species of bulbous perennials in the family Asparagaceae. It is native to the Caucasus and the Middle East.
Puschkinia grows so beautifully in clumps and multiplies consistently every year – I have several areas filled with these delicate small flowers.
I have clumps of Puschkinia now planted outside my stable underneath my crabapple trees.
Eranthis, or winter aconite, is a genus of eight species of flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae – the Buttercup family.
While some flowers naturalize in clumps, these spread. Winter aconite produces cheerful yellow flowers that appear in late winter or earliest spring.
And Chionodoxa, commonly known as the Glory of the Snow, grows and multiplies in clusters.
Blue and white are the most common, but bulbs also come in shades of pink and white.
This is pink Chionodoxa.
And here is Chionodoxo growing under a bald cypress tree along the carriage road to my home. Naturalizing specific bulbs creates a natural, informal, and beautiful landscape. I hope this inspires you to plant some bulbs that are “good for naturalizing” – you’ll be glad you did.
Martha Pins
Martha Tweets
