Visiting Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA

B Bernard
Longwood Gardens
Neighborhood: US 1
Kennett Square, PA 19348
Longwood Gardens is the world's premier horticultural display garden. It is a private non-profit organization, receiving no government funding. Primary funding comes from an endowment, admission income and the Longwood Gardens shops. Six hundred employees, students, and volunteers, including 50 gardeners, keep Longwood's 1,050 acres beautiful. Numerous construction and renovations have been made that are still ongoing. Longwood's first Visitor Center was constructed in 1956. In 1966 The Palm House was constructed. The East Conservatory replaced the Azalea House in 1973 and in 1983 The Terrace Restaurant was constructed. These renovations continue till today, there are many significant projects under way.

Longwood has 40 gardens, 11,000 types of plants, and 800 yearly events including concerts, classes, children activities, and gardening demonstrations. Inside The Conservatory are an Exhibition Hall, The Palm House, The Silver Garden, The Orangery, roses, hibiscus, a growing house, The Mediterranean Garden, The Cascade Garden, and a tropical terrace. There are various outdoor attractions such as The Open Air Theatre. This theatre was built in 1913 and features summer performances and fountain displays. Also, a rose garden that was installed in the 1930's and a rose arbor, an old Italian wellhead surrounded by arches of pink climbing roses. There is an outdoors children's garden and topiary garden which features evergreen that are trimmed into large geometric forms and whimsical shapes. Beautiful blooms can be found along sloping paths from March to October and a 50-foot man-made waterfall cascade recirculates water through the fountain system.

Longwood Gardens is located at US 1 Kennett Square, PA
610-388-1000 www.longwoodgardens.org

Admission (subject to change)

Adults $12 mild January - March ($8 on Tuesdays)
$14 April thru the day before Thanksgiving ($10 Tuesday discount)
$15 Thanksgiving thru early January (no Tuesday discount)

Youths $6 ages (16-20)

Children $2 ages (6-15)
Under Age 6 is Free

Group Rates Available

Frequent Visitor Passes (good for an entire year)
Adults - $60 Youths - $30 Children - $10

Hours (subject to change)

Open Everyday of the Year
9am - 5pm (until 6pm April-October)

Conservatory opens at 10am

Longwood remains open Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday evenings during the Festival of Fountains (May-Sept) and nightly during the Christmas display.

Published by B Bernard

Female living in NJ.....  View profile

2 Comments

Post a Comment
  • Jennifer9/7/2010

    Please note that the admission prices listed in this article are incorrect. Please visit the Longwood Gardens website at www.longwoodgardens.org for the correct prices.

  • Lily5/28/2008

    If you are planning to visit Longwood Garden for the fountain shows, I have to warn you that you may end up seeing nothing at all.
    I was in Longwood Garden May 24, 2008 (after driving more than 2 hours, and with a relative from oversea). We didn't get any warning about the fountain shows were canceled that day. Not on their website, not at the gate, not even at the observation deck for the main fountain show.
    After carefully planning our route, we ended at the main fountain show area half hour before the show. We waited for half hour, nothing happened. People were all puzzled what was going on. Finally, I asked a garden employee and learned that the show were canceled for the entire day because of the speciall event in the evening.
    Fine, there maybe some reasons to cancel the show for the day. But at least, all the visitors have the rights to know it before entering the garden. Longwood Garden made no effort to inform the visitors. No notice on the website, nothing on the garden gui

Displaying Comments

To comment, please sign in to your Yahoo! account, or sign up for a new account.