Local Flavors

Did you know that our fine dining restaurant, 1906, updates its menu every season? Our chef and restaurant staff recently added twelve new items. Take a look behind-the-scenes to see the stringent review that the dishes undergo to make the cut!

The panel of judges

The panel, consisting of the Terrace’s General Manager, 1906’s Restaurant Manager, 1906’s Head Chef, and the Senior VP of Food & Beverage, discuss and sample all of the new items to determine if they are seasonal and work well together.

The panel reviews the tasting menu thoroughly and makes notes on potential improvements.

A new entrée in 1906

For each dish the chef explains the ingredients to the group and the team discusses consistency and portion size of the dishes. After the feedback from this panel is implemented, the staff of 1906 participates in a second round of testing before the menu can be considered final.

A new black cod entrée

A new black cod entrée gets some finishing touches before it’s brought out to the panel of judges in this behind-the-scenes view of the Terrace’s kitchen.

Make your reservation through Opentable and come visit us soon to taste these fresh new dishes for yourself!

Learn more about our menu selection process on our Facebook page.

Read Full Post »

Behind the Beauty of Orchid Extravaganza

The Orchid Chandelier at Longwood Gardens

Our aspiration at Longwood Gardens is to create a place where our guests can take a deep breath and leave behind the stresses of our 21st century lives. This winter at Longwood, your escape is Orchid Extravaganza—a world filled with thousands of flowering orchids.

Some may wonder why we would choose to feature these amazing curiosities of nature during the coldest months of the year. The reason is simple: orchids are the rock stars of the plant kingdom. Well, they are at least one of the rock stars. The real reason for displaying orchids this time of year is that most orchid species are in peak flower from early January through late spring. Orchids can be found in most every climate of the world, but they are particularly bountiful in the tropics where the winter season brings rain, and with it lots of orchid flowers.

People have long held a fascination with orchids. During the grand age of plant exploration in the 19th century people collected them with a maddening frenzy, because the exotic flowers were like nothing ever seen before. Even more fascinating was their unique sexuality that titillated the Victorians. It’s all in the history books. Check it out sometime.

Today, people continue to be inspired by the exotic nature of orchids almost to a fault, because their beauty is deceivingly fragile. While it is true some orchids are finicky, many are not. Our Orchid Extravaganza display features orchids like Cymbidium, Oncidium, Phalaenopsis, and Dendrobium that I would encourage the novice gardener to experiment with and try at home. If you want to be daring, I challenge you to immerse yourself into our diverse orchid collection in our Orchid House. You will see an entire range of species, both common and rare, like no other place in the world. The orchids on display in our Orchid House are hand-picked daily from our vast collection behind the scenes.

In 2013—for the first time—we invite you to go beyond our garden gates and think about the beauty that exists on the other side of our works of art. Who are the artists behind everything that we do? This year we invite you to meet and celebrate the real geniuses of Longwood Gardens. Meet our orchid grower Lee in this video that gives you a glimpse of the beauty behind the scenes:

I know that I am probably biased, but I have to say that I think that this year’s Orchid Extravaganza is the very best ever. The breathtaking orchid chandelier suspended in our Exhibition Hall was designed, fabricated, and installed by the professionals of Longwood. I wish we could expose the layers of the orchid chandelier in a cross section that would show the sheer genius of engineering, artistry, and curation that makes Longwood great. The next time you visit, don’t hesitate to ask one of us “how did you do that?” You have my promise that we will take you beyond the garden gate to share the story of Longwood’s beauty.

Read Full Post »

A World of Beauty

I recently returned home to Longwood after attending the 9th International Gardens without Limits Conference, Gardens & The Public: The Keys to Success, in Metz, France. I was fortunate and grateful to have the opportunity to be among 26 invited speakers and 400 attendees from around the world. The theme for the biennial gathering was “Welcome to the New Generation.” It was exciting to learn how other public gardens, parks, and greening organizations are working to broaden their base of support, welcome younger generations, and remain relevant.

I often think about the relevance and necessity of public gardens like Longwood.  Public gardens are diverse in size and scope, but I will go to my grave believing that the great essential unspoken need for public gardens is beauty. Let me share some examples that I learned about in Metz that support my position.

• Christchurch, New Zealand has adopted a program of “greening the rubble,” which is an effort to create more parks and gardens and build a sustainable, green community after the devastating earthquakes.
• Nantes, France has a 4-flower rating (I didn’t even know you could get a flower rating) and will be the European Green Capital in 2013.
• The House of the Gardens in Pine Wood Park in Beirut, Lebanon is serving as a place for a community with a historically complex social structure to come together in peace  and create beauty through gardening.

These gardens are creating beauty through restoration, revitalization, and economic development. Even more profoundly, these public gardens are becoming the catalyzing agent to nurture peace and a deeper, more meaningful understanding of one another.

I salute my colleagues from around the world who are making a difference and leading the way for all of us to connect everyone to the beauty of our global garden.

Read Full Post »

Our Global Garden

Aster tataricus ‘Jindai’ was acquired by Longwood Gardens from the Jindai Botanical Garden in Tokyo during a 1985 expedition to Japan.

At Longwood, we have established our very own definition of “a great garden of the world.” To us, greatness is defined by the ability to produce beautiful and timeless displays. But we also look beyond our own garden gates—to our relationship with international institutions—to help us define greatness. Many of the most important design, horticultural and educational contributions we have made would not have been achieved without our global partners.

Our beautiful horticultural displays are rooted in our plant exploration program—a  program that has prompted Longwood staff to travel to over 50 countries and introduce over 130 cultivated plant varieties. Plants collected during these expeditions now compose Longwood’s globally recognized plant collection. Furthermore, many of the plants released from our research and development program are now well known and economically important, such as the New Guinea Impatiens.  More recent global partnerships have resulted in our development and presentation of the rare Japanese Thousand Bloom Chrysanthemum and Lilytopia, which was presented in partnership with the Dutch bulb industry.

According to Thomas Friedman,“the world is flat,” and all of us at Longwood have fully embraced our flat, globally connected world. We have been methodically evaluating, establishing, and defining meaningful relationships around the world. Recent new partnerships with the Fairy Lake Botanical Garden in Shenzhen, China and the National Parks Board of Singapore allow for the cooperative exchange of staff for professional development. We are excited to soon formalize our partnership with one of China’s newest public gardens, the Chenshan Botanical Garden in Shanghai. Our partnership with Chenshan will provide for the exchange of staff for professional development, support of educational programs, and scientific research.

Longwood has many other global partnerships not described here that we are grateful for, and we look forward to advancing our relationships with our partners. Our aim is that you, our guests and community, will reap the rewards through even better displays and programs. These relationships help all of us appreciate one another a bit better and acknowledge our shared responsibility in caring for our global garden.

Read Full Post »

Illuminating Gardens

Small Lake – Field of Light at Longwood Gardens

Recently one of our Facebook Fans posted on our page about her concern the peace and serenity of Longwood would be lost as we continue to become more commercial. I find the commercialism comment interesting, because clearly there is a perception among some that our programming is more about the financial bottom line rather than our mission.

Our vision for Longwood is to be a great garden of the world. But what does it mean to be a great garden? We are continually exploring and discussing this concept. For Longwood, great gardens are defined by timeless beauty and an ability to engage all of the senses.

We are excited to present this summer the first major exhibition of British light artist Bruce Munro. Some may view this as a step toward commercialism, but frankly, it’s quite the opposite. The very reason that we would even consider to present something so unexpected at Longwood is to further fulfill our vision to be a great garden of the world. Munro’s imaginative lighting designs will provide a new lens from which to view and explore what defines a great garden.

Every year we present our holiday light display, which everyone loves, but holiday lights are truly about the spirit of the season. They are beautiful, fun, and colorful. Munro’s work at Longwood is softer and far more sublime because there is no heaviness of the hand. Bruce’s illuminations are neither flora nor fauna in representation, but seem to me at least, to be a bridge between the two in our Gardens where they appear to have naturally existed forever.

The commercialization of arts and culture is an on-going debate and topic of conversation inside and outside of the profession. I can recall years ago when it was controversial for gardens like Longwood to have a restaurant or even a gift shop. This is the very reason why our restaurant is tucked deeply away from the Gardens. The thought of the time was to keep food service out of sight and out of mind. Today, we couldn’t imagine being without a dining facility, and having it more front and center would be preferable.

This past holiday season we implemented new timed ticketing practices and we will be doing the same for the Light display this summer. The very reason we made the difficult decision to have timed ticketing was to control crowds and ensure that the Longwood experience was of the highest quality possible.

Our philosophy and promise at Longwood is that we aren’t just selling tickets, but we are providing an experience that is a world apart from all others. The Longwood experience has evolved over time and is shaped by the legacy of our founder, P.S. du Pont. While excellence in horticulture has always been the primary aim of the place, Longwood was designed to entertain, educate, and immerse people into a beautiful living theater.

Commercialization is far from our interests at Longwood. The Longwood experience is authentic and cannot be replicated any other place in the world. I hope you will come to Longwood this summer to see our Gardens in a new light.

Read Full Post »