Longwood Gardens Orchid Extravaganza

Another splendid estate of the du Ponts dotting the Brandywine Valley landscape that no garden-lover should miss is the ever-beautiful Longwood Gardens, the former country home of Pierre S. du Pont. This past weekend, I visited the Longwood Gardens during the Orchid Extravanganza, housed within the vast 4.5-acre conservatory that never seems to lack color, fragrance, and exciting arrays of blooms.

This time however, the highlight of the conservatory was the incredible display of beautiful specimens of Cattleya, Dendrobium, Phalaenopsis, Paphiopedilum, and Oncidium within the warm and cavernous interior. Even though the winds were howling at up to 50 mph outdoors, the conservatory felt more like a tropical rainforest - humid and balmy at around the 70s.

What an extravaganza indeed! Huge orchid arrangements in the form of trees, cascades of orchids next to small water features, and dozens of exotic orchid specimens in full bloom in the Orchid House. Entering one section of the conservatory to another, at every turn, were lush displays of orchids of all shapes, sizes, colors, and forms. My favorite has to be the lace-like petals of the Rhyncholaelia digbyana "Mrs Chase" hybrid (pictured below). And the title "extravaganza" also belies how it must have been an extravagant expense to groom these orchids and keep them warm and humidified during the all those snowstorms and whatnot over the winter.

Rhyncholaelia digbyana "Mrs Chase"

I've seen many hybrids of orchids before in tropical gardens (notably Singapore's unmatched National Orchid Garden), but here at Longwood, the display is evidence yet of the tremendous diversity of the Orchidacaea family. If the tulip mania was emblematic of civilization's craze for beauty in the 17th-century, the crown must now belong to orchids in the 21st-century for capturing our loving attention and our tireless willingness to cater to their every need!