Spring Garden Weekend: Longwood, Winterthur, Mt. Cuba

This is an idea that we started tossing around on the "Events" thread.

There are 3 great gardens near Chadds Ford, PA. Both Longwood Gardens and Winterthur have wonderful spring displays, and Mt. Cuba Center is known for its shade gardens.

Chadds Ford itself is a lovely little town, home to the Brandywine River Museum and loads of antique shops. We could find a hotel or B&B there; I think there are several good possibilities, might even be able to get a group rate for Saturday night (I'd probably want to stay over Friday night also, but I'm further away).

We haven't started talking about a date, but I'm thinking we'd want to go late enough in the year for the hostas etc. to be up at Mt. Cuba (although I haven't ever been there)... maybe late May or early June? or will we really have time to make it to all 3 gardens?

Please post if you think you'd be interested or if you have input to share.

Thanks!!

reserved for links & details

Destination websites
Longwood Gardens: http://www.longwoodgardens.org/

Winterthur: http://www.winterthur.org/

Mt. Cuba Center: http://www.mtcubacenter.org/index.php

possible hotels or B&Bs
Staybridge Suites http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/sb/1/en/hotel/PHLFD?hotelCode=PHLFD



This message was edited Jan 9, 2010 4:22 PM

I have never been to Mt Cuba Center but we had a speaker from there at Garden Wise.
She had a slide-show presentation. It was just beautiful.
Stormy you would have loved it.

Jill, here is a link to the Staybridge that we stay at. http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/sb/1/en/hotel/PHLFD?hotelCode=PHLFD

If you put in some dates it will give you the costs of the room's.

Reserving this space. Guess we are asking for interest and then we'll have to pick a date. Does anyone want to call Longwood and find out when the best bulb show is? Do they have special spring events listed on their site? We could also check with Mt. Cuba. Mt. Cuba gives custom docent led tours for groups of 9 or more.

This message was edited Jan 9, 2010 3:55 PM

Longwood has a seasonal "what is blooming?" list on their site... others probably have similar pages.

Winterthur only has the small buses with limited outdoor tours running now. Closer to spring they open the outdoor open air railway. The Restaurant and cafeteria at Winterthur are wonderful and the gift shop and book store are excellent. It is the largest collection of American decorative arts in the world. The collection used to be limited to objects created before 1860, but they have since opened a new section that has a later collection.

The book store has an impressive array of books published by the Getty Foundation Press, who susidizes all sorts of neat books on art and decorative items and archeological finds that could otherwise not get the financial backing for publishing. These are not your best sellers, but remarkable reproductions of art works. Just the city series are fabulous, Venice, Rome, with overlay pages to show how the cities have changed through the ages. I'll have to leave my credit card home if we go there.

Jill, Just a warning..hotel rates are expensive up that way. Those are wealthy towns. The gift shop at Winterthur is to die for, unless they have changed it since I was there last. Been to Longwood Gardens about 3 times but can't recall much about its gift shop and surely, they have one!

Count me in! I live in Brinklow, MD. I'm a newbie, retired, free to travel, and have a very flexible schedule. I'm going to look on the Events page now.

Grossmutti (Can I change this user name?)

Welcome Grossmutti, What's wrong with being a grandmother???? LOL
Yes, you can change your name. Go under "tools" from the home page and scroll down to the bottom of the page to the "contact us" link.
Send a note to the admin and they will help you do it.

Maybe you'll want to come to our seed swap in Frederick too.

Thank you, but, well, maybe I won't change it after all. People seem to like it. I was afraid it sounded gross. When and where is the seed swap in Frederick?

Hi Everybody!
I live on a hillside in the woods near Sandy Spring, MD--zone 6b.The clearing around our house mostly qualifies as part shade. Been scratching around in the dirt here for about 5 years, strictly trial-and-error. I've found that Astilbes thrive beautifully in this environment and sedums do well too, though I'm limited to the ones the deer don't like. I've planted skip laurels, Otto Luykens, azaleas, hypericums, cornus kousas, viburnums, serviceberry, etc., etc.. Gardening is my greatest joy. I look forward to sharing that pleasure with Dave's community.

With spring coming, my main interest now is finding others who're (that word doesn't look right, sorry) interested in visiting public gardens as a group. I visited Hidcote Gardens a few years ago and it changed my life. I can still see that great towering Cedar of Lebanon! Now that I'm retired, I'm dying to go to Winterthur, which I've never seen, and visit Longwood again--just for starters. I'm lucky enough to live close to Brookside. Never been to Dumbarton Oaks.

Guess that's enough of an introduction. I'm very excited about joining this community and I look forward to sharing with other gardeners and learning from you.

Grossmutti

Welcome! I'm looking forward to meeting you, Grossmutti!

You'll find links to the Frederick seed swap and a growing number of other fun stuff here in our new "Events" thread: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1061079/

Pippi, I'm not expecting to find bargain lodging, but we may be able to negotiate a reduced group rate... and I like the idea of combining several destinations into one weekend trip rather than doing separate day trips. Of course, anybody who lives near the area could skip the Saturday night stay-over and just meet up with the group during the day.

I'm glad to see several others interested already! :-)

Critter, I'll look into that other hotel when I get done fooling around with these seeds tonight or tomorrow. Guess we need to find out when Easter is to rule that weekend out and also see what weekends the three destinations might be having special events. I noticed, when looking for other things to post on the events thread, that some websites don't have their 2010 events posted yet.

My DH and I would like to join you. Hopefully no one else in my family will find out about this and have the whole thing fall apart with sick li'l darlins and etc.

LOL, Folks, Villiers lives right down in that area. She's written that there are lots of new hotels there. She wants to join us for at least part of the weekend and will be getting some hotel info together.

Excellent! Thanks, Villiers.

I'm glad there's already a good bit of interest in this... I wasn't sure people would be up for a weekend thing rather than a day trip. Maybe this will turn into a sort of Spring RoundUp event!

LOL Grossmutti-- have you noticed we have a beloved "critter" in this forum? but if we start shortening your name, we'll try to go with Mutti instead of Gross, if that helps you!

I received a Dmail from ViburnumValley. He told me that the Mt. Cuba Center is not to be missed. He's been there several times and gave me a name of someone to request as a guide.

ooh, excellent!

So, would we do Longwood the first day and Winterthur plus Mt. Cuba the second? I've only been to Longwood in the bitter cold, but my impression is that the gardens & grounds are more extensive than Winterthur, so it could easily occupy most of one day. Hmm, maybe vice versa... Winterthur plus Mt. Cuba on Saturday, then Longwood on Sunday, and people can head for home whenever they need to. ?

Critter, Mt Cuba is further away, so I think it would be better to do that on Sunday. It would also depend on whether or not people want to see the inside of Winterthur, which is a hugh attraction.

Sounds good...

The exhibits in the house at Winterthur were wonderful, but I don't remember it taking more than an hour or so to go through them... but I'm not sure I saw the entire gardens that day, either (I was visiting with one of my best friends & enjoying a beautiful day, not so much focused on seeing every flower there).

So, are you thinking we could try to see Longwood & Winterthur both on Saturday? Or do we need to try for a 3 day weekend? LOL

Critter, I've done both on one day before. It depends on what's in bloom and how much the tropicals are of interest. I guess it would be better to do Winterthur in the morning, then move on to Longwood.

The slide show I saw of Mt Cuba was very impressive but I don't really know how big it is. I've never been to Winterthur either.

Winterthur is very hilly. The mansion is nestled at the bottom of the hills, back in the interior of the property. All tours start from there. The gardens are woodland, more shrubs and trees, not so much perennials. Most people view them from the tour buses and rail trolley. It is a hugh property, but the entire front of it is massive lawn where they hold the point to point. It is 60 acres. One thing that is relatively new that I'd like to see is the children's garden there:

http://www.winterthur.org/for_families/enchanted_woods.asp

The rail ride through the gardens takes a half an hour. There are also maps available to lead one through the trails, if you prefer to walk. It would be a fairly long walk, more of a hike. If you see things from the railcar that you'd want a closer look at, you can always return to the area on foot

There is a 10 minute film shown inside the mansion to help everyone orient themselves to the museam and grounds. The mansion tour takes at least an hour, if not longer, depending on your interest level and whatever they are showcasing that week. Figure on at least 45 minutes in the gift shop & bookstore. The cafeteria here is very nice.

People are transported to the mansion and visitor center to and from the parking lot via shuttle bus.

Mt. Cuba is 650 acres. The cultivated land is a very small part of the area. There are hugh wildlife preserves and natural areas.The group tours start on April 13th. They are walking tours that take 2 hours. Sunday group tours start at 1pm. If there are less than 10 people, other arrangements can be made. I'm pretty sure that Mt. Cuba is mostly wild flowers and native plants. I don't know that there are any hosta there.

http://www.mtcubacenter.org/plants/spring/spring_splendor.html

early May seems like it might be a good time for Mt. Cuba with its wildflowers... and any time in spring is bound to be good for Winterthur & Longwood... when do you think their azaleas might be in bloom? (You'd think I'd remember those things from year to year, LOL)

Azaleas at Longwood are Great! I just can't remember if the water features are open yet at that time. Ric

Critter, One of these places said no strollers.

Longwood turns on some of the fountains in mid April, but put a lot more on Starting May 1st.There are some water shows that start May 1st, but all of them are on by May 15th. There are special lighted evening water shows and extended hours in late May. The water lily gardens open June 1st.

Easter is April 4th. I tried calling Longwood about the Azaleas, but no one answered. Maybe they close for this holiday. Their phone# is 610-388-6741.

Stormy, I've got a backpack carrier also for Little Bit. Thanks for reminding me to check about strollers!

So... what do we want to see? When would be the best time to go? I think we have to choose between azaleas/wildflowers and water lilies... the water lilies might be worth a separate trip later in June...

We definitely should go in the spring. If we go early in May, then we could go again late in June. We need to work these dates around when is best for our swap too. If we wait until May, we miss most of the bulb show.
There is a festival of fountains the last week of May first week of June. When the water lily garden is open, also coincides with the time, I think, when they are having a big oriental lily display inside the conservatory, in June. All new Dutch bulb cultivars. I'm not nuts about walking around Longwood in July & August.

Would late April be better, do you think, for bulbs & azaleas? There will be some wildflowers by then, I'd think. It's not like there will be a *bad* time to go in April or May, LOL, so it may end up being a function of what weekends people are available. I could probably do the 3rd or 4th weekend in April, or the first or second weekend in May. (later in May might be fine also for us)

I'll try again tomorrow to call Longwood and ask about their Azaleas.

Man this sounds like a trip I would LOVE. We'll be in Disney, Easter week.

Jen, we're definitely not doing it Easter week. Glad you're going to get away!

We are too, first real vacation in 8 YEARS!!!!

Jen you will have a great time. My kids just loved Disney and Sea World is so great. There is so much more now than when my kids where kids. LOL
Wonder what the best display time would be for Mt Cuba? Seems to me that they have a lot of azaleas. Mostly we want to see the spring flowers bulbs and azaleas mostly. I don't think we have anything scheduled for this spring. Not sure Ric and I are doing our usual spring trip.

One of the best things that week in Epcot the International Flower and Garden Festival will be going on then, Woo hoo!!!!
http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/parks/epcot/special-events/epcot-international-flower-and-garden-festival/?CMP=EMC-WDWFY10CMRPDC20323210