Longwood Gardens---Summer 2014

I had previously made a blog on my Longwood Gardens trip. Then I went back to edit one word and somehow I made one wrong click along the way that caused me to lose it all. So I am rewriting the blog because it was one of my favorites. This past August my son and I had to pick my sister up at the Philadelphia International Airport. Usually you have to go to a special parking lot and wait for a call and then head to the terminal. Another alternative that my son likes is to hang out at the nearby historic Fort Mifflin. There in the parking lot you get an excellent view of the big jets lining up to make their runway approach. Just about every 2 or 3 minutes you have another jet overhead. I even got a great pic of my sisters jet arriving:

The fort is located on the Delaware River. A ship is docked there but we did not go into that area or to the fort itself.  Fort Mifflin was originally called Fort Island Battery and also known as Mud Island Fort.  It was commissioned in 1771 and sits on Mud Island on the Delaware River below Philadelphia, Pennsylvania near Philadelphia International Airport. 

Here are some reviews of the site. http://www.yelp.com/biz/fort-mifflin-philadelphia


There are hours and a fee for the tour. So I do not think they particularly like for people to hang out in the parking lot but I guess if it were a huge problem they would have asked us to leave. I believe the ship is a dredger called the McFarland.

After we picked up my sister we headed for Longwood Gardens. It was an a perfect day: warm, sunny and not the usual humidity for a mid-summer day. We walked around for about three hours and never did we feel we had to escape the heat. First we viewed these spectacular floating pan-shaped giant leaves called Victoria lilies. The other typical lilies were stunning as well.

http://longwoodgardens.org/visit

Longwood Gardens is located on US Route 1, about 3 miles northeast of Kennett Square, PA.

I have thorns. Do not eat me:

View of a large tree going through the treehouse:

I was fascinated by the Amish touring group.  I know they do not like to be photographed but I discreetly managed to get a shot. I also assumed they were only interested in growing practical crops on their farms. But the appeal of beautiful plants and flowers must be universal.

Hmm-mm:

This chenille plant is grown in my annual flower garden in New Jersey. I have also seen this grown in Bermuda as a year round shrub that gets very large:

http://longwoodgardens.org/visit

I guess you really need two days to visit.  It is amazing that I can get to this beautiful site in under 2 hours so I hope to make a return visit.  I missed the award winning bathrooms and did not visit the distant farm house.  In my previous post I wrote a short history on how the gardens evolved and eventually was saved by wealthy Pierre Dupont.  

This is what I missed:

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/Longwood_Gardens_wins_best_bathroom_contest.html