duPont Day

Saturday, May 20

Today's a big tourist day. Logistics are complicated by the fact that we have to leave our current campground early, we can’t check into the new place until 3pm, and we don’t want to haul the MH+toad around all day. So we drive to a reasonably close shopping center, where we find several signs reading No Truck Parking. No Overnight Parking. Violators will be towed. We park at the farthest edge, unhook the M3, tape a 3x5 note to the front windshield, cross our fingers and head to Longwood Gardens.

Ten or 12 years ago I finally visited Butchart Gardens in Victoria, BC. They were lovely, but I kept comparing Butchart to these gardens that I'd visited back when I was 10 or 12. I mentioned this to one of our traveling companions, adding that I figured I was romanticizing Longwood based on the impression it had made on a young girl. "Not at all," replied my friend. "I've been to Longwood too, and it is definitely grander." And grander was probably a really good adjective to choose. Butchart is lovely. But it's 55 acres, and Longwood is almost 1100, including a conservatory with over 4000 different plants and an entire fountain garden offering beautifully designed spectacles of water, light, music, & fireworks (in July). The 2 gardens do, however, have several significant similarities: 1... begun in the very early 1900s.  2... begun as labors of love.  3... have an Italianate Garden.  4... offer cultural arts programs as well as gardens.  5... and, surprising to me, both have Aeolian organs (the Longwood organ has 1010 pipes - like I said, grander 😃). My pics aren't very grand (and we visited as spring displays were being replaced by summer ones), but you'll get the general idea.

Central area of the Conservatory

Wild Iris  (I love iris.)

One of the last azaleas.

Just a few of those 1010 pipes (one is 30' high)

Italianate Garden (not the fountain garden)

From Longwood Gardens (created by Pierre S. duPont, 1870-1954 - he originally purchased the property to save rare trees that had been imported from around the world), we drove to Winterthur Museum (former home of Henry F. duPont, a cousin of Pierre). My maternal grandmother worked for this duPont family at Winterthur. Unfortunately, that's about all I know - no idea what her job was or when/how long she worked for them. I have a box of shells that Grandma brought me after she'd wintered w/ the duPonts in Boca Grande, FL. That would have been in the 50s, but Gma emigrated from Scotland in 1929, so she could have been w/ duPonts for a long time. It was kind of weird knowing that I had this connection yet not knowing any details. 
Anyway, Harry duPont hated the Victorian decor his parents had, so when they passed on he began re-decorating rooms to reflect other periods and styles of American furnishings. In one of the rooms, I was surprised to find another personal connection: the furnishings had all come from a home in/near Chestertown, MD, which is where I was born. Honestly, I wasn't all that interested in the museum b/c I'd been expecting to see the house that my grandma had lived in. (I was in Winterthur once as a child - Grandma gave me a drink of water in the kitchen and showed me an elaborate dollhouse somewhere. The kitchens aren't even there anymore.) The grounds, however, were fabulous. Greg and I probably walked through them for close to an hour. 

White arrows (left) kept us on the path.

Stiff Wind

Cottage in Children's Garden

Fairy Ring 
(mist emanates from each toadstool)

What luck.... an antique car show!
(1931 Buick Station Wagon)

Greg playing in the Fringe Tree...

...aptly named. 

Just like him.

We passed this goose

...as we were leaving.

Long day. Good day. And we found the MH sitting safely in front of Home Depot - no nasty reply to Greg's note. I followed Greg to Hidden Acres, where we intend to do as little as possible for the rest of the day. Tomorrow we're going to see one of my cousins in Coopersburg.