This Pennsylvania garden near Philly has 10,000 pipes in its walls and 1.5 million fans

It’s the Brandywine Valley’s biggest draw

Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, sits about 30 miles from Philadelphia in the Brandywine Valley, and most people who come here are headed to the same place.

Longwood Gardens covers more than 1,100 acres of formal gardens, open meadows, and winding paths.

Over 10,000 species and varieties of plants grow across nearly 200 acres of cultivated ground, representing 200 plant families. More than 1.5 million people walk through every year.

The gardens are massive, but the story behind them starts with one man trying to save a few trees.

A lumber sale almost wiped out these century-old trees

The Lenni Lenape tribe lived on this land for thousands of years before European settlers arrived.

In the early 1800s, brothers Joshua and Samuel Peirce planted native and exotic trees that grew into one of the finest arboretums on the Eastern seaboard by 1850. Then a lumber mill nearly bought the whole thing.

In 1906, 36-year-old industrialist Pierre S. du Pont stepped in and purchased the 202-acre property to keep the trees standing.

He spent decades expanding the grounds with no fixed plan, pulling from French and Italian garden traditions he picked up during his travels.

1,719 jets shoot water across five acres

Pierre du Pont built the Main Fountain Garden in 1931 after visiting the grand fountains at Versailles, Villa d’Este, and several world’s fairs.

The five-acre garden sat for decades before a $90 million restoration wrapped up in 2017, the largest fountain preservation project in the country.

Today 1,719 jets fire across the space, and more than five miles of underground pipes push 35,000 gallons of water through the system daily.

At night, choreographed shows sync the jets to music and colored lights, with fireworks on special occasions. A new Grotto and Grand Stairs round out the redesign.

Walk through an indoor jungle with 4,500 orchids

Pierre du Pont opened the Main Conservatory in 1921, and it still runs as a perpetual indoor flower show. You walk beneath cascading flower displays, past mature trees and sunken pools that make you forget you’re inside.

The Orchid House alone holds hundreds of orchids drawn from a collection of more than 4,500 plants. Around the corner, the Silver Garden grows cacti and succulents from Mediterranean and desert climates.

If you have kids with you, the Indoor Children’s Garden gives them hands-on water and plant activities to burn off energy.

A $250 million expansion just opened new ground

Longwood unveiled a $250 million transformation of 17 acres in November 2024, and it changed the shape of the place.

The centerpiece is a 32,000-square-foot West Conservatory designed by architecture firm WEISS/MANFREDI, with planted islands, pools, canals, and low fountains filling an immersive Mediterranean Garden inside.

The building’s walls and roof panels open and close with the weather, and a geothermal system handles heating and cooling.

New promenades and terraces now connect the conservatory grounds from east to west, with overlooks into the Brandywine Valley.

The only Burle Marx garden in North America lives here

Roberto Burle Marx is one of the most celebrated landscape architects in history, and his only design in North America sits inside Longwood.

The Cascade Garden first opened in 1992, then got carefully taken apart and rebuilt inside a custom glasshouse during the Longwood Reimagined expansion.

Tropical plantings, water features, and sculpted stone evoke a coastal rainforest.

Right outside, a new Bonsai Courtyard displays specimens from one of the finest bonsai collections in the country, including rare Japanese kicho bonsai recognized for their beauty or rarity.

750 fountain jets turn a stage into a water curtain

Pierre du Pont threw a garden party in 1914 and debuted an Italian-style Open Air Theatre inspired by the Villa Gori in Siena.

That venue has now hosted more than 1,500 performances over the past century, from Broadway-style musicals to the United States Marine Band.

Today, 750 fountain jets create a curtain of water across the stage during daily shows. Summer brings a concert series with nationally known artists.

During the holidays, more than 600 lights illuminate the theatre’s fountains while holiday music plays across the grounds.

Six blue-tiled pools and 600 jets guard the lake

Between 1925 and 1927, Pierre du Pont built the Italian Water Garden in a low-lying site northeast of the Large Lake, modeling it after the Villa Gamberia near Florence.

Six blue-tiled pools and 12 pedestal basins hold 600 jets that fire in patterns across the water.

The Lake District beyond stretches out with rolling lawns, shaded paths, and views across both the Large and Small Lakes.

Nearby, the Forest Walk takes you through treehouses and bridges set among poplars, oaks, and sugar maples, and the Chimes Tower gives you elevated views beside a cascading waterfall.

10,010 pipes hide behind silk-covered walls

The Longwood Organ holds 10,010 pipes divided into 146 ranks, making it the largest Aeolian organ ever built in a residential setting.

Pierre du Pont had it custom-designed in 1930, and the pipes sit behind silk-damask-covered walls in the Ballroom.

Belgian organist Firmin Swinnen designed the instrument and played as resident organist from 1923 until 1956. A seven-year, $8 million restoration brought it back to its original 1930 condition in 2011.

You can catch free organ concerts throughout the year and tour the Organ Museum behind the Ballroom walls.

Half a million lights take over at Christmas

Spring fills the outdoor gardens with tulips, cherry blossoms, and flowering trees.

From May through September, the Festival of Fountains lights up the evenings with illuminated shows and fireworks on select nights.

Fall brings the Chrysanthemum Festival inside the conservatory, along with vivid foliage and a Garden Railway running miniature locomotives through the displays.

Then winter arrives and Longwood Christmas covers the grounds with more than half a million twinkling lights and fountain shows.

The Christmas display has won Best Botanical Garden Holiday Lights from USA Today’s 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards multiple times.

An 86-acre meadow stretches beyond the formal gardens

Peirce’s Park still holds many of the original specimen trees the Peirce family planted in the early 1800s. Pierre du Pont added the Sylvan Fountain in the 1920s, and it still runs among the old trunks.

Beyond the formal gardens, the 86-acre Meadow Garden takes you along trails and boardwalks through native tall-grass meadows with open views of the landscape.

More than 750 acres of forests, wetlands, and streams surround the cultivated grounds. Keep your eyes open for white-tailed deer, red foxes, and swallowtail butterflies along the edges.

A Monstera vine from the 1900s still grows inside the house

The Peirce-du Pont House is one of the oldest buildings on the property, originally built as a Quaker farmhouse. Pierre du Pont made it his home and added a small conservatory filled with tropical plants.

A Monstera deliciosa vine planted in the mid-1900s still climbs the walls inside that conservatory today. The Heritage Exhibit in the house covers 300 years of Longwood history through photographs, videos, and artifacts.

Step outside and you’ll find shaded benches and views straight into Peirce’s Park, a good place to sit after a long day on your feet.

Explore Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania

You’ll find Longwood Gardens at 1001 Longwood Road in Kennett Square, about 30 miles from Philadelphia. The gardens open daily except Tuesdays, and hours shift with the seasons.

Timed admission tickets sell out fast on weekends and during the holidays, so buy yours in advance. Children 4 and under get in free, and parking costs nothing.

Give yourself at least three to four hours to cover the grounds. You can spend a full day here and still miss something.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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