Magical Highlights of A Longwood Christmas 2024
Our Gardens are shimmering with Christmas magic! 🌟 Sunshine pours into our breathtaking new West Conservatory, while dazzling lights twinkle throughout the Gardens including 17 reimagined acres, making this our biggest and most magical Longwood Christmas ever. 🎄✨
A Longwood Christmas is on view through January 12, 2025. Get your tickets and Member reservations now before they vanish! longwoodgardens.org/longwoodchristmas
Video by Jen Fazekas.
Fly Through A Longwood Christmas 2024
✨ Spirits are soaring with the magic of Longwood Reimagined + A Longwood Christmas! ✨ Experience the joy of half a million twinkling lights, wander through the enchanting Peppermint Palace, feel as though you’ve stepped into a shimmering crystalline snow globe, stroll beneath a mesmerizing tunnel of dancing lights, and be transported to a Christmas wonderland surrounded by pure holiday magic.
Make A Longwood Christmas the highlight of your holiday season! 🌟
🎄 A Longwood Christmas is on view through January 12, 2025. Get your tickets and Member reservations now before they vanish! longwoodgardens.org/longwoodchristmas
Video by Carol Gross and Nate Hause.
Guests React to Our New West Conservatory
Magical Moment #17 in our celebration of the 17 acres of beauty transformed by Longwood Reimagined is all about you! We are heartened to hear so much excitement from so many of you. Your joyful reactions make all the months (years!) of hard work worth every minute.
So many hands have played a part in bringing our vision to life. From lush new landscapes, sweeping new vistas, restored historic Gardens, and innovative design, every inch of these 17 acres reflects the dedication and passion poured into Longwood Reimagined.
Thank you for celebrating this milestone with us. Here’s to many more magical moments together in the Gardens!
Video by Fresh Fly.
Plants of our West Conservatory
We are taking you inside the West Conservatory for a private tour with our West Conservatory Manager Kenny for Magical Moment #14 celebrating the 17 acres of beauty throughout Longwood Reimagined. Kenny’s excitement about the new plants now under his care is the smile we need as we approach the weekend!
This winter, we’re thrilled to see four new varieties of Grevillea make their Longwood debut, among many other thoughtfully selected plants. We hope you share in his excitement for our beautiful new plantings that blend modern design, technology, and the horticultural excellence that defines Longwood.
There are three more days to explore our West Conservatory and other new spaces before they open to the public with our Member previews. Find out more at longwoodgardens.org/member-previews
Longwood Reimagined opens to the public on November 22. Find out more at https://longwoodgardens.org/new-garden-experience
Our New 1906 Restaurant and Bar & Lounge
Magical Moment #12, celebrating the 17 acres of new garden beauty transformed by Longwood Reimagined, is our brand new 1906 Restaurant and Bar & Lounge overlooking our Main Fountain Garden. From plush seating to imaginative menus that celebrate fresh, seasonal, and sustainable ingredients—many of which grown just steps away—1906 is truly exceptional. One of the keys to 1906 is the strong partnership between our chefs and Ornamental Kitchen Garden horticulturists … and the resulting (and delicious!) connection between garden and plate. Read more about this garden-to-table excellence on our blog, at https://longwoodgardens.org/blog/2024-10-30/garden-table-excellence-1906.
You can explore all of our new beautiful Garden spaces before the public opening, with our Member previews through November 17. Find out more at longwoodgardens.org/member-previews
Longwood Reimagined opens to the public on November 22. Find out more at longwoodgardens.org/new-garden-experience
Photography by Holden Barnes, Hannah Beier, Hank Davis, and Evan Sung.
Explore Our Cascade Garden
“The garden is, it must be, an integral part of civilized life: a deeply felt, deeply rooted, spiritual, and emotional necessity.”
~Roberto Burle Marx
On this sunny Saturday we present Magical Moment #9 in our countdown to celebrate the 17 acres of transformed beauty in Longwood Reimagined with our beautifully restored and preserved Cascade Garden. The only garden in North America by world-renowned Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx (1909–1994), our Cascade Garden immerses you in the misty embrace of the Brazilian rainforest.
Designed in 1992, our Cascade Garden has been lovingly restored and moved to its new location in an unprecedented act of preservation. Horticulturist Kaylene Argot, who oversees the Cascade Garden, takes us on a tour of this historic space and shows us some of her favorite moments.
You can have exclusive access to take in this beautiful vista and more, before the public opening, with our Member previews through November 17. Find out more at longwoodgardens.org/member-previews
Longwood Reimagined opens to the public on November 22. Find out more at https://longwoodgardens.org/new-garden-experience
Our New Bonsai Courtyard
Today’s Magical Moment in our countdown to celebrate the 17 acres of transformed beauty in Longwood Reimagined takes us to our new Bonsai Courtyard.
The Bonsai Courtyard draws you in to admire the artful trees from every angle with 360-degree views. Horticulture Specialty Grower Kevin Bielicki takes you on a stroll through the garden and lets you in on his favorite times to enjoy the space. This “modern stroll garden,” as he calls it, is a year-round destination that beckons you to return again and again to witness these sculptural works of art change with the seasons.
See our new Bonsai Courtyard before the public opening with our Member previews, now through 11/17. Find out more at longwoodgardens.org/member-previews
Longwood Reimagined opens to the public on 11/22. Find out more at https://longwoodgardens.org/new-garden-experience
Longwood Reimagined: A Sustainable Vision
For Magical Moment #5, celebrating the 17 acres of new garden beauty transformed by Longwood Reimagined, we’re showcasing the cutting-edge sustainable design that’s the backbone of the project. Every technical aspect of our 32,000-square-foot glasshouse continues Longwood founder Pierre S. du Pont’s century-old legacy of innovation in conservatory design. From the use of geothermal wells and earth ducts, to rainwater-capture systems, to reclaimed wood, Longwood Reimagined includes a number of impactful sustainable practices that make it as innovative as it is beautiful.
You can have exclusive access to all of these beautiful spaces before the public opening with our Member previews. Find out more at https://bit.ly/4ebWQSI
Longwood Reimagined opens to the public on November 22. Find out more at https://bit.ly/3TQmR36
Planting Aquatics in our West Conservatory
“As a child, I was always delighted to behold flowing water.”
~Pierre S. du Pont, Longwood Gardens Founder
For Magical Moment number 4, celebrating the 17 acres of transformed beauty of Longwood Reimagined, we shine a light on the aquatic plantings that fill the tranquil pools of water that are such an integral part of the design of our West Conservatory.
Our gardeners have planted vertical, grasslike rush (Juncus inflexus) in submerged pots as well as the winter-blooming Cape pond-lily (Aponogeton distachyos) with white flowers and leaves that rest on the water’s surface. They have also planted the carefully selected lance-leaf arrowhead (Sagittaria lancifolia ‘Rubra’) that creates an elegant vertical silhouette and catches the sun in our West Conservatory.
Our Member previews give you an exclusive glimpse into Longwood Reimagined, now through November 17. Find out more at https://bit.ly/4ebWQSI
Longwood Reimagined opens to the public on November 22. Find out more at https://bit.ly/3TQmR36
Preserving the Cascade Garden
A rare work of masterful, imaginative landscape design, the Cascade Garden is the only intact garden design in North America by acclaimed Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx (1909–1994)—and we are proud to soon unveil this preserved masterpiece in its new home with our upcoming Longwood Reimagined debut. To move the Cascade Garden into its new, free-standing, custom-built glasshouse required us to relocate, reconstruct, and preserve this prized garden in a way no other institution has done before—stone by stone and plant by plant.
Get a glimpse of the process behind moving this historic design, and how we’ve cared for its plants over the last three years on our blog, at https://longwoodgardens.org/blog/2024-09-26/stone-stone-and-plant-plant-reimagining-cascade-garden
Maybe you’ve noticed our penchant for stunning hanging baskets bursting with color and long-lasting blooms? We pride ourselves on our iconic hanging baskets; the culmination hours of collaborative efforts among our Horticulture and Facilities teams.
Senior Grower Michelle Hagerty lets you in on the months-long planning process growing our baskets during our Science Series on Friday, September 13. Find out how our experts source specialty materials, make use of our unique facilities, overcome challenging delivery issues, and maintain these incredible forms of living art.
More at https://longwoodgardens.org/events-performances/events/science-series
Video by Mariah Kaltenstein.
