June 4, 2008 - Philadelphia, PA

There was a heavy mist when we drove to the Henry Francis Dupont house, known as Winterthur in Wilmington, Delaware. A tram drove us through a section of the 60-acre naturalistic garden of native and exotic plants. There is also a children’s garden. The Dupont family was very much into preserving the plants and trees. They would not cut down a tree unless it was absolutely necessary. Once we reached the house, we took a guided tour through the house containing 17th, 18th, and 19th century American antiques. The museum next to the house displayed furniture, paintings and china.

It stopped raining so we decided to go to Kennett Square in Pennsylvania to see the Longwood Gardens. This was the most beautiful garden I have ever seen. We walked through the flower garden walk and on to the Italian Water Garden. This water display was so unique and absolutely beautiful. They had a special display of three different styled tree houses. The largest one was on the lake near the Italian garden. I was really lucky and got a great picture of a Cardinal. We walked back to the center of the gardens to the open air theatre where we saw a special water fountain show set to music. Next, we went to the Peirce-du Pont house located in the center of the garden. It was a beautiful home with a large court yard. The topiary garden was the best that I had ever seen. We walked up to the conservatory where we sat above the main fountain garden and watched another fountain display. The skies were starting to get dark so we went into the Conservatory. Toward the back of this building was an outside water lily courtyard. They had many different colors and types of water lilies. Then it started raining so we went inside the Conservatory which had displays for palms, orchids, hibiscus, roses, tropical plants, and a bonsai section. We took our time because now it was pouring down rain. The orchid display was terrific as was all of the other displays.

When we were finished with the Conservatory, we decided to make a run for the car. We really enjoyed the gardens and felt lucky that it hadn’t rained until the end of our tour. Time to go back to our RV.