Lynn WiezyckiPart 1 was all about the Himalayan Blue Poppies that Longwood Gardens is famous for. This post is about all the other flowers that were blooming…
while I was visiting in March 2020.
On a previous visit, in late May 2018, I had seen many of what I consider the typical late spring flowers. There were huge gardens of tulips, daffodils, and others. Visiting in March, I knew that I would see a whole different set of flowers. The outside gardens were mostly still very empty or showing early growth of what was to come.
The Crocus were the primary flower outside this early. I had to get down and close to get the images I was hoping for of these little blooms.
I did find some other outdoor blooms in between my time in the conservatory and the rains!
The indoor conservatory and greenhouses were where I spent most of my time. The various “rooms” offered a wide variety of plants and flowers to experience and shoot.
The conservatory is so full of flowers it is mind-boggling! To make it harder, the plant managers often are changing what is on display from one day to the next so I ran around trying not to miss anything I wanted to make an image of.
There were some of the late spring flowers inside.
The side rooms included a desert plant room. After my visits to the desert in January, I was still seeing images in these dramatic plants.
The orchid room is so colorful! They change out the orchids regularly as well.
These are just a few of the hundreds of orchids that are in the orchid room and all over the conservatory.
The various greenhouses are bits of art themselves.
I found one greenhouse where there were some examples of what would be outside in a few more weeks!
Anemones are one of my favorite flowers so I spent some time making images of the few plants I found in this greenhouse.
One greenhouse had food type plants. Who knew kale could be art!
I was surprised to see a large number of hibiscus blooming as they are very tropical. They had some amazing specimens.
I also like to make images of interesting leaves and plants.
I especially love the leaves and fiddleheads of ferns. The huge collection of ferns gave me a great variety of images.
The third day I was there the gardeners were making a huge change of flowers when I first came into the conservatory. The varieties were so colorful it was overwhelming!
That third day I spent some more time outside getting images of some of the structures and surrounding grounds.
The evening of my third day I received an email from Longwood Gardens indicating that the gardens would be closed indefinitely starting the next day due to the fears of Covid spread.
So I decided to take an earlier flight home. I was able to change my flight to very early in the morning. I packed everything, got a couple of hours of sleep, checking out of the hotel around 2 am. I drove to Philadelphia, arriving at the car rental return. I stood outside, freezing, waiting for the shuttle!
I spent the next couple of hours in the airport thinking about Covid and trying to stay away from the other passengers.
Made it home and began several months of lockdown. I was so glad I had all those images to go through and process!
I had some fun creating more “artist” flower images.
As always, I highly recommend a visit, or multiple visits, to Longwood Gardens. Every season will give you a whole different set of blooms inside and out. Be sure to take your macro lens as well as a wide-angle lens. Be sure to visit their website to find out what is blooming and any restrictions.
Please click on an image to see a larger version. Visit my Longwood Gardens Gallery for these and many, many more of the beautiful flowers that these wonderful botanical gardens have to offer!
That is all for now!
Lynn
Mary Presson Roberts