Longwood Gardens’ 150,000 tulips are expected to be at peak bloom the week of April 14. Photo by Becca Mathias/Longwood
Ahoy, tulip lovers.
Now is the time to steer your ship toward Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, where Longwood Gardens‘ waves of tulips are heading into their peak bloom for spring 2024.
Seeing their 90 varieties of tulips — single blooms, double blooms and fringed — along the 600-foot Flower Garden Walk is a favorite spring outing for many.
The walk features more than 150,000 tulips and other seasonal bulbs, with plantings arranged in flowing colors from pinks and purples to shades of red and yellow to soft white blooms.
Also on display there are flowering magnolias, cherry trees and dogwoods.
In nearby Peirce’s Woods, native spring ephemerals such as Virginia bluebells and trillium are in flower.
The cascade of blossoms is expected to peak the week of April 14 and end the first week of May.
More than tulips
Longwood also offers a refreshed layout in the Ornamental Kitchen Garden. It features more accessible pathways, additional seating and new display areas.
Recently planted and expect to mature and flourish throughout the summer months, the expanded Ornamental Kitchen Garden will support the growth and production of more than 200 fruit and vegetable crops annually.
“Kitchen gardens have a unique ability to connect guests of all ages with plants and cultivated spaces,” said Associate Director of Landscape Architecture and Program Design Erin Feeney. “Their intriguingly patterned rows entice exploration; their structures showcase craft of the human hand; and their beautiful and unusual cultivars of familiar crops sustain us and display the variety of the natural world.”
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In the Conservatory, guests are greeted with the fragrances of blooming freesias, lilies and stock while hanging baskets of trailing jasmine infuse the surroundings with rich aromas.
Seasonal favorites such as hydrangeas, pansies and foxgloves color pathways while April blooms of Echium wildpretii ‘tower-of-jewels’ add a touch of magnificence.
The flowering spring attractions extend into the Meadow Garden where Carolina silverbells, Eastern redbuds, flowering dogwoods and sweet azaleas unfold with natural beauty.
Longwood’s Café also has reopened with a refreshed layout and tasty seasonal offerings.
The Gardens are open Wednesday to Monday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Timed admission tickets are required through May 8, 2024.
Betsy Price is a Wilmington freelance writer who has 40 years of experience, including 15 at The News Journal in Delaware.
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