Lynn WiezyckiOn our second day in the Philadelphia area, we decided to pop over the state border to Delaware. On a dark and rainy day, our first destination was Winterthur Museum and Garden in Winterthur, DE.
Some Details from Wikipedia
Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library is an American estate and museum in Winterthur, Delaware. Pronounced “winter-tour,” Winterthur houses one of the most important collections of Americana in the United States. The museum and estate were the home of Henry Francis du Pont (1880–1969), Winterthur’s founder and a prominent antiques collector and horticulturist.
Our Visit to the Mansion
Upon arriving at Winterthur the weather had not improved so we took the shuttle to the mansion for the tour. It was much warmer and dryer inside!
The tour guide took us through the massive house showing us some of the many antiques.
My favorite room was at the very end of the tour. There was a spiral staircase and then a perfectly place ornate mirror!
When we finished the tour, we picked up our backpacks and went outside. It was still a bit drizzly but it had warmed up a little. We went to the back of the house to get a full view of the mansion.
I then pulled out my Nikon Z6 Infrared converted camera with the FTZ and 16-35mm lens. The mansion just went on and on!
We had seen the reflecting pool as we rode around the mansion on the shuttle, so we walked down the steps to get a better view of it.
Our Visit to the Gardens
From the pool, we walked out into the extensive gardens. There were formal gardens and there were huge meadows with flowers growing in them.
In April, the spring blossoms and flowers were just starting to cover the gardens. We had been told by the shuttle driver that they had experienced late snow so some of the flowers had been damaged but we could see that there were still many colorful blooms all around.
My eye was immediately caught by the color blue! Virginia Bluebells were planted along the drive we walked along as we headed to the gardens.
As we approached one of the garden areas, I saw that many of the magnolias had been damaged by the cold but I found a few buds and the Star Magnolias were in much better condition.
We could see a very colorful area as we walked around the magnolias. There was a whole group of blooming quince trees that were surrounded by Squilla flowers in the grass.
I set my sights on the brightly colored Quince bushes.
I pulled out the infrared camera to get a wider view of the garden.
From there we walked out through the trees toward the road we had been on in the shuttle. We had seen a number of cherry trees that we wanted to get a closer view of.
I walked under this huge tree and it was absolutely beautiful being in amongst the cherry blossoms!
Across the road were the meadow with a couple of other cherry trees and the start of the large daffodil gardens. Our shuttle driver had told us that Mr. DuPont had planted the daffodils in irregular patches that when seen from a distance, would look like clouds in the sky! But we first spent a few minutes trying to get the daffodils with the pink cherry blossoms in the background. I had to get right down on the ground to get this image.
We walked out across the meadow, where I could see the cloud effect of the daffodil patches. I shot 15 vertical images with some overlap to get this panorama of the meadow.
I took a few more images in this beautiful meadow!
At one point I laid down in a patch of daffodils to get these images.
There is a massive research library next to the mansion. Not much to photograph in a library so that was not on our agenda.
It was time to catch the shuttle and head out to get some lunch. After lunch, we headed over to Wilmington, DE to visit the other DuPont estate in the area.
Some Details from Wikipedia on the Nemours Estate
The Nemours Estate is a 200-acre (81 ha) country estate with jardin à la française formal gardens and a French neoclassical mansion in Wilmington, Delaware. Built to resemble a French château, its 105 rooms on four floors occupy nearly 47,000 sq ft (4,400 m2). It shares the grounds at 1600 Rockland Road with the Nemours Children’s Hospital, Delaware, and both are owned by the Nemours Foundation.
Nemours was created by Alfred I. du Pont in 1909–10 as a gift for his second wife, Alicia. It was named for the north-central French town of Nemours, which was affiliated with his great-great-grandfather, Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours. Carrère and Hastings designed the mansion, which is in the Louis XVI style of French architecture.
Our Quick Visit to Nemours Estate
We arrived at Nemours as the weather worsened so we quickly walked around and I made a few images. I visited Nemours in 2018 and my gallery for that visit has more images.
Since one of my photographer friends is a car guy we did take a walk around to the car garage.
There were only a few flowers blooming in the Nemours gardens.
My favorite image was actually taken from the parking lot. This is an abstract of the side of the Nemours Children’s Hospital that is adjacent to the Estate.
I highly recommend a visit to Winterthur Museum and Gardens as well as Nemours Estate. From images on their social media pages, the gardens were even more spectacular later in the spring and early summer!
We still had some time before our dinner reservations in Wilmington so we decided to find a park to spend some time. We found Brandywine Park which was set along Brandywine Creek in Wilmington. To our surprise, the park was full of cherry trees that were in full bloom!
After a long day of walking in the dreary weather, we were ready for dinner!
Click on any image to see a larger version OR visit my galleries to see and purchase prints and other items with these and additional images: Winterthur Museum and Gardens, Nemours Estate, and Brandywine Park
My next blog post will be on our visits to one of my favorite places in America, Longwood Gardens!
That is all for now.
Lynn
Mary Presson Roberts