Longwood in August (cont'd)

On our way to the conservatory, we stopped at Peirce-du Pont House.

When I was here in January, it was decorated for Christmas and I missed details like the wonderful stone steps to the porch

and plants in the atrium.

This little fountain is just as attractive without its holiday decoration:

I was eager to see if the conservatory was as wonderful without its Christmas trees. It was.


There were a lot of caladiums in various beds around the outdoor gardens but this was definitely the most interesting way to display them:

The reason this floor is so shiny is because there is a thin layer of water on it.

The stream in the East Conservatory was more lush than I remembered.

I missed these cute little fountains in January:

I was fascinated by the water platters in the Outdoor Waterlily Display:


The Estate Fruit House was full of fruit grown in amazing ways. There were grapes growing from the ceiling:

Melons growing up the walls:

And strawberries growing out of the floor:


Our visit to the conservatory was necessarily brief because we wanted to see the fountain display in the Main Fountain Garden. In January, we had seen a fountain display set to lights and music after dark. This time it was still daylight. How exciting could it be?

It's just water, right?


Right. . . ?

WOW! That was fabulous! What time is the next show?

We moved on to what has become my favorite garden, the Example Garden. It demonstrates how a large variety of flowers and vegetables can be grown in an attractive manner in the space of a normal size backyard:




There is also a lovely shady terrace.

With a nice hosta display. Now, doesn't this look much better than the "art-form garden"?

Nice, naturalistic plantings, no straight lines. But wait, what's this? Did someone forget to pick up this flower pot?

Oh, I see.

They also have "working cats"

We were fortunate enough to meet a couple of friendly felines who were willing to take time out from their busy day to allow us to pet them.

They were even willing to pose for pictures.

The Children's Garden has a lovely seating area . . .

. . . with a fountain, of course!

Finally, we were getting closer to the herb gardens which I had been wanting to see since my first visit . . .