I’ve long wanted to visit Longwood Gardens, one of the most well-known gardens on the US east coast famous for its water features and formal gardens. Since we would be driving (relatively) nearby—and we didn’t have a dog with us—we decided to finally visit on our return from New England.

We arrived a few minutes before their 10am opening and got in line for tickets. After a brief issue with their staffed credit card machines we obtained our tickets from the automated kiosk and made our way into the gardens.

Our first stop was for the Open Air Theatre Fountains.

Next we headed toward the greenhouse / exhibition hall where we admired so many unique orchids.

 

This area also included an internal view of the organ pipes along with interactive buttons to play the organ.

And my favorite – the famous water garden courtyard. The overcast sky was lucky for us because the night-blooming lilies were still open alongside the day-blooming specimens.

At 11:15a the Main Fountain performance took place, which was quite impressive.

Once the performance was complete we made our way around the formal gardens, then up to the trial and kitchen gardens. As luck would have it we were at the Chimes Tower right at noon.

Here’s a compilation video of all the fountains and music.

 

We stopped at the cafe for a quick lunch, then made our way through the colorful Flower Garden Walk.

Making sure to cover all corners of the property, we then looped through the Italian water garden and eventually into the Peirce-du Pont House.

Facing a 7 hour drive we couldn’t stay much later, so after about 4 hours of exploration we left Longwood. It was well worth the cost, these are truly beautiful gardens. On a future trip I might consider packing a lunch, as there are numerous spots where one could picnic.