Longwood Chimes 299

LONGWOOD CHIMES 299

Summer 2019

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No. 299

Designing minds…from the beauty of a single floral arrangement to our showstopping indoor displays, to the acres of outdoor gardens that wow, to turf patterns that amaze, to even this artful publication, designing minds are hard at work throughout Longwood. In this issue of Longwood Chimes we introduce you to a few of the many talented team members who bring our grand plans to life.

In Brief

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Features

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Engineered Spectacle A brief foray into four decades of our popular Fireworks & Fountains Shows.

By Colvin Randall

Thoughts on Design Musings on the methodology and practice of Design Thinking.

By Caroline Tait

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Function and Form A look at the thinking behind the beauty of some functional garden features.

Designing Women Our floral design instructors are beauty personified.

By Katie Mobley

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Dreaming of Gardens Our garden designers are as varied as the gardens themselves.

By Lynn Schuessler

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A Century of Floral Sun Parlors: The Seed is Planted The conclusion of Part One in our ongoing series on the building of Longwood’s Conservatory.

By Colvin Randall

End Notes

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A Million Thanks Our Volunteer Program reaches a special milestone on the cusp of its 30th anniversary.

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In Brief

Associate Director, Display Design Jim Sutton and East Conservatory Manager Karl Gercens meet in the Design Studio to review schematic planting plans for the Conservatory. Photo by Daniel Traub.

Legacy

Engineered Spectacle Glittering up gardens with fireworks has been ongoing for centuries. The royal courts of Europe captured these evanescent moments with elaborately illustrated festival books that glorified the monarchs for posterity, no matter how puny the kingdoms.

As democracy evolved, fireworks highlighted the great world’s fairs, especially the ones Pierre du Pont visited, as well as important public celebrations.

The du Ponts have had a two-century tradition of celebrating with fireworks, which is not surprising considering the family business. Even before Pierre purchased the Peirce farm, he was acquiring or contracting for commercial fireworks, especially for a large display to commemorate the DuPont Company’s centennial in 1902. He ordered simple do-it-yourself devices to celebrate his first July Fourth at Longwood in 1907, with larger professional displays for the 1909, 1911, 1912, and 1922 Garden Parties, and for 1924 and 1930 July Fourth celebrations. Although the 1922 hour-long display was set off from the site of the future 1931 Main Fountain Garden, it was not until 1980 that fireworks were first used with the fountains.

Four decades, more than 160 shows, seven commercial suppliers, and 10 pyrotechnic designers later, Longwood’s fireworks are now engineered by Art and John Rozzi of Arthur Rozzi Pyrotechnics of Ohio, in conjunction with the Gardens’ fountain designers. The process is simple in theory but complicated in practice. Longwood sends

Opposite: Happy Birthday, Leonard Bernstein Fireworks & Fountains Show, August 2018.

Photo by Hank Davis.

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the finished music track to the Rozzis, along with an outline of places in the various songs where fireworks seem appropriate. The pyrotechnicians then get to work, building on Longwood’s suggestions but adding their own design expertise and hundreds of split-second cues that fit perfectly with the prominent beats of the music.

Art Rozzi estimates that it takes him 100 hours to design one show from start to finish. The more he hears the music, the more his ideas crystallize, with 17 different firing locations to choose from and 12 different angles available to aim the mortars.

He uses the latest fireworks visualizer software which shows him what it should look like. It also generates information that helps him with timings entered into a separate Pyro Seeking Digital Firing System that links with Longwood’s fountain computers via a timecode. The fountain computer has its own water visualizer, so with enough lead time, Art can study a computerized video of the proposed fountain display as the starting point for his fireworks design.

How appropriate that many fireworks effects are named for flowers. A peony, the most common type, is characterized by a spherical break of colored stars that burn without generating a trail of sparks. A chrysanthemum has a spherical break of colored stars, although its stars leave behind a trail of sparks. The willow resembles a chrysanthemum, but with long burning

A brief foray into four decades of our Fireworks & Fountains Shows.

By Colvin Randall

silver or gold stars that produce a soft canopy-shaped weeping willow-like effect.

A palm shell contains a few large comet stars, which in bursting create large tendrils that give it the appearance of a palm tree.

There are also poinsettias, flower mines, and a color bouquet of 1,000 flowers. Over the years, almost every known type of shell has burst above Longwood. Typically, there are more than 700 large shells in a show, with more than 1,000 front effects (mines, comets, candles) in the last 10 minutes and 1,300 to 1,500 shells in the finale, which is usually the last two to three minutes.

As John Rozzi notes, “Designing and putting on a fireworks show at Longwood is always a delight. It is so inspiring just working within the gardens themselves and seeing what goes into making such a beautiful place. I often walk the grounds when I get the opportunity and let the plants fill me with ideas. I observe the color arrangements, the symmetry, and try to imagine how to recreate the effect in my fireworks designs. Sharing a stage with the fountains is itself a treat and I strive to enrich the regal water displays with the pure appeal of the fireworks. I find it truly a pleasure and a privilege to be a part of such a wonderful place.” Adds Art Rozzi, “Longwood’s fireworks are very special because of the venue, music, and the beautiful fountains. The show is unlike any other. Fireworks are so universal in their appeal. Who doesn’t like fireworks!?”

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Designing with Fire

“I often walk the grounds when I get the opportunity and let the plants fill me with ideas.”

—John Rozzi, Designer, Arthur Rozzi Pyrotechnics Above and below: Prior to the implementation of visualization software, Art Rozzi sketched what certain effects would look like.

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The fireworks visualizer can simulate a display in the Main Fountain Garden.

Below: The visualizer software produced this report that shows the mortar racks required and pin numbers for Module 32 on rear-site trailer #2. It also lists the products needed and at what angle to aim them.

Above: Green peony with red pistils.

Above: These newly designed mortar carts can be set up under cover and then rolled into place at the Rectangular Basin. This allows for better checks of correct positions and angles, which can be precisely aimed but easily changed. Photo by Colvin Randall.

Left: Three large trailers with the biggest shells are moved fully loaded to the rear site south of the Eye of Water. The firing cable runs hundreds of feet both above and underground, back to the Control Tower below the Conservatory.

Photo by Colvin Randall.

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Musings on the methodology and practice of Design Thinking.

By Caroline Tait

Education

Thoughts on Design I’ve been walking the trails and loops, up gentle inclines and around the gradual curves of the Desert Botanic Garden in Phoenix, Arizona as part of my two-month field placement as a Longwood Fellow.

Being a garden designer from Britain, this desert experience remains a standout for me, from experiencing the diversity of sites, plant material, and climates to observing the interests and reactions of guests as they stroll through a thoughtfully designed space.

In my past life, my first conversation with a new garden client would often take the form of “what works for you in this outdoor space, what doesn’t, and why?”

I ask “why?” in many different ways, and many times over. Before designing a space, I try to understand the owner’s response to the surrounding landscape: what is it about this experience that elicits an emotion?

What emotions surface? What do you long to feel? The form of the land, the color, the smell: these are all memory joggers. I watch them in the landscape, in their spaces.

These times together are thrilling as we learn about each other and develop trust, as we embrace the design process and envision a new reality.

The source of these emotions is often coming from a practical place. There may be frustration when access is difficult and steps are hard to navigate, yet there may be happiness when family and friends are gathering. Feelings of calm or peace often

Opposite: Original design sketches and concepts by Senior Turfgrass Technician Derek Miller for turf patterns in the Italian Water Garden, and Senior Horticulturist Jessica Whitehead for the planting scheme for the Square Fountain.

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stem from the flow of informal curves or the balance of symmetry. With my designer hat on, my task is to strike a balance between delivering something the client loves while injecting moments of contrast and play to challenge emotions. The same would hold true for public garden designs like Desert Botanic, which is why my walks here have been so fruitful, giving me time to think. At the end of the day, every design is subjective, every design elicits emotion, and all emotions are uniquely personal.

All of this brings me back to an exhibit I helped design at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Hampton Court called “Tip of the Iceberg” with a central message that we live in a “throw-away society.” In our design, we played with scale, objects, and what “makes” a great garden. Our mountain of sparkling recycled fridges, set in an icy sea of glass, was planted with contrasting vibrant flowering alpines, challenging all visitors to see it for what it is and for what it means.

Boy, were there emotions surrounding this design! Some visitors expressed their love, a nod to creativity, to the bigger message, while others expressed disdain. Emotion drove conversation. And to us, that was a successful garden design.

The Fellows Program has helped me dig deeper by introducing me to the concept of Design Thinking. First practiced by innovators in the technology world, Design Thinking is a creative problem-solving approach in which one seeks to understand

the user, challenge assumptions, and redefine problems by developing an understanding of the people for whom he or she is designing a service or product.

It’s a process rooted in ongoing questioning and experimentation throughout its five phases, which are not always sequential, but can happen in parallel with one another: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test.

While I am a Design Thinking novice, the concept of building upon empathy for the user and framing a problem (and its solution) in human-centric ways resonates with me to my core. If a designer truly questions a problem, comprehends its best solution, and then creates an innovative, appealing design (with a bit of fun thrown in), that designer can bring about wellthought-out, positive, and deeply personal change to many peoples’ lives.

Here at Desert Botanic I’m enjoying the intimacy of the path network and being able to see glimpses through a border to what lies beyond. Be it designing gardens, show exhibits, or wedding day florals, learning about others’ emotions, my emotions, and the emotions of a place along the way is nothing short of fascinating. The reward of knowing that a garden is beautifully tended by a devoted owner, or that a bouquet of blooms overwhelms a bride, makes the sometimes demanding process totally worthwhile. That reward, that emotion of gratitude for what I’ve learned and excitement for what’s to come, is my “why.”

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Features

Associate Director, Landscape Architecture and Program Design Erin Feeney led the effort to determine the finishes for new garden benches, part of a larger ongoing effort to present a unified expression in materiality across the Gardens.

A number of different options for the slats and the color of the bench frame were explored before settling on the final design. Weathered wood was ultimately chosen for the slats because it feels authentic and at home in our Gardens. But in addition to look and feel, it was important to select a species with proven durability, and one that could also be sustainably sourced.

Equally challenging was determining the exact finish and color of the powder-coated steel frame. A number of different choices were explored before settling on a bronze tone known internally as “Longwood Bronze.�

Photo by Daniel Traub.

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The Arts

Function and Form Exhibitions, garden ornaments, and furnishings are features designed to serve a supportive role within the Gardens. A look at the thinking behind the beauty of these functional elements.

Left: Guest relaxing on one of the new benches installed along Paulownia AllĂŠe.

Above: Associate Director, Landscape Architecture and Program Design Erin Feeney at bench overlooking Flower Garden Walk.

Photos by Daniel Traub.

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Garden Benches

In support of our master plan, Longwood is working to unify site furnishings throughout our Gardens and to improve the furnishings’ function, experience, and comfort. When it comes to benches, subtle nuances in design such as the angle of a chair back can support or depress certain behavior.

Material choice and overall comfort can communicate and determine how long we linger and what we do while seated.

Longwood believes these are important details to get right and, therefore, engaged

urban design and landscape architecture firm West 8 to assist with this endeavor. They have a thorough understanding of the anatomy of an ergonomic bench, having designed and implemented benches for public spaces across the globe.

In winter 2018, we installed 42 new benches in the formal garden core. These new benches were informed by the design language of the double-sided Main Fountain Garden bench, developed and installed in 2016 as part of the revitalization of that space. For both benches,

we started by drawing inspiration from the Longwood spaces where the new benches would be placed and studying bench precedents set in gardens around the world. We then worked through a series of custom prototypes that allowed us to refine details. New benches must reinforce the aesthetic and sense of place.

Associate Director, Landscape Architecture and Program Design Erin Feeney took a project management lead on this process from design through implementation.

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Historic Pump Room & Gallery An exhibition is a combination of environmental design and storytelling—carefully orchestrated to inspire and engage. Inside the Historic Pump Room, Pierre du Pont’s vision and design for the Main Fountain Garden are told using the original mechanical systems he built nearly 100 years ago.

For the first time in our history, we’ve opened the doors for our guests to touch the pumps and experience a space that has changed little since its beginnings in the early 1930s.

The design approach required a careful hand to preserve as

much of the original character of the Pump Room as possible while also adding layers of detailed (and often complex) information about the engineering and garden spectacle. This included the use of original catalog art, drawings, and photography to communicate the function of each major mechanical feature.

Associate Director, Interpretation & Exhibitions Dottie Miles was project manager for this project, in collaboration with consultant design firm Pentagram.

Opposite: Detail view of interpretive panel describing the function of the original air compressors located in the Historic Pump Room.

Photo by Jeffrey Totaro.

Above: Associate Director, Interpretation & Exhibitions Dottie Miles in the Historic Pump Room. Photo by William Hill.

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Meadow Garden Gates

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The ornately forged iron gates for the expanded Meadow Garden debuted just prior to the grand opening in summer 2014. They serve as a distinct feature within the Longwood landscape, marking the transition from the formal gardens to the informally scripted Meadow Garden experience. The initial brief given to Art Director Steve Fenton was to devise a set of classically inspired wrought iron gates that incorporated the Longwood

logomark. The logomark, known formally as “the rosette,� is comprised of 18 cursive uppercase L’s arrayed in a circle.

Instead of simply placing the logo verbatim into the design, Fenton focused on isolating the individual L-shapes, repeating, flipping, and cropping them in various ways to create robust patterns that could translate well into ironworks. The finished design is classical in form, but with a hand-forged rawness in keeping with the rustic qualities of the Meadow Garden.

“He took what was essentially a twodimensional design and brought it into the third dimension.”

—Art Director Steve Fenton on his design collaboration with artisan blacksmith Andrew Molinaro.

Left: Detail view of Meadow Garden gate. Photo by David Ward.

Above: Art Director Steve Fenton at the main entrance to the Meadow Garden. Photo by Daniel Traub.

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Education

Designing Women Our floral design instructors are beauty personified.

By Katie Mobley

“As much as I enjoy the rules and teach the rules, here’s what it’s really about: you must learn the rules and then break them.”

—Nancy Gingrich Shenk, Floral Design Instructor, Longwood Gardens

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Above: Cres Motzi, Jane Godshalk, Midori Tanimune, and Nancy Gingrich Shenk collaborate on a floral tableau for this issue’s cover image. Photo

by William Hill.

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It’s been said that those who can’t do, teach.

Here at Longwood, however, the remarkably talented instructors Jane Godshalk, Cres Motzi, Nancy Gingrich Shenk, and Midori Tanimune prove that not only can they do floral design but they can certainly—and quite wonderfully—teach the art of floral design, while inspiring those students lucky enough to learn from them.

Longwood’s floral design program is one of the Northeast’s most respected and forward-thinking, thanks to its diverse courses and lectures, which first began in 1957 with such topics as handling cut flowers, corsage making, and basic principles of flower arrangement.

In the last five years, Longwood has filled 4,600 floral design class seats and, in 2019 alone, is offering 43 floral design classes.

Students of the program engage in hands-on instruction, utilizing premier fresh flowers and foliage, while receiving individual attention and guidance from our instructors.

Our floral design students can take an individual course or choose to pursue our Certificate of Merit in Floral Design, which

requires the completion of a series of challenging, yet inspiring, core courses, electives, and a culminating exam. Since its 1997 start, approximately 400 students have attained the Certificate of Merit in Floral Design—thanks, in large part, to our fantastic floral design instructors.

Godshalk, Motzi, Gingrich Shenk, and Tanimune have garnered international acclaim, earned high-ranking certifications, and realized amazing feats throughout each of their careers. And while they come from very different backgrounds, they all subscribe to one common school of thought—that floral design is meant to be a happy venture.

An accessible artform to be shared and enjoyed. And, above all, it’s meant to be fun.

Nancy Gingrich Shenk, for one, definitely knows the rules of floral design. A graduate of Rittner’s Floral School in Boston and the Dutch Masters’ Design School in Holland, and the recipient of a Praktijkdiploma from Stoas College in Holland, Gingrich Shenk (and her resume) are nothing short of dazzling. Among her achievements, she has served as the owner of a custom design

studio, a member of the floral design teams for two former presidents’ inaugurations, and the 2008 Teacher of the Year by the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture … and we’ve been fortunate to have her as a Longwood instructor since 1994. In fact, Gingrich Shenk helped develop our Certificate of Merit in Floral Design.

“Floral design is about making something look beautiful,” shares Gingrich Shenk. “As much as I enjoy the rules and teach the rules, here’s what it’s really about: you must learn the rules and then break them. At the end of the day, I just want students to love flowers. I will gladly teach them how to arrange, but the beauty of flowers is when we allow them to speak to us.”

Gingrich Shenk first entered the floral design world at 12 years of age, upon the tragic time of her mother’s passing. “We had so many floral arrangements at the house.

My way to deal with it was to stay away from people and focus on the flowers,” shares Gingrich Shenk. “Guests started noticing my care of the flowers, told me I was good at it, and suggested I become a florist. From then

“I teach that you should not be afraid of making a mistake.”

—Jane Godshalk, Floral Design Instructor, Longwood Gardens

Right: Jane Godshalk demonstrates how to set the table with flowers for your next fête at the May 2018 The Art of the Party: Backyard to Ballroom demonstration in Longwood’s Ballroom. Photo by Kate Fahey.

Opposite: Floral designer and Longwood instructor Nancy Gingrich Shenk leads the April 2016 Celebrating the Elegant Style of Constance Spry course in Longwood’s Ballroom. Photo

by William Hill.

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on, I never thought of another career choice.

I’m one of the few people I know who has stayed in my career my whole life, and I have never once regretted it.”

For Gingrich Shenk, the impact of floral design is profoundly personal and professional. “I have found that so many students come here while recovering from loss or illness. They come to a class and for three hours they don’t have cancer, for one. Or they don’t have sadness. I hear it over and over again … coming to a class here is cheaper than a shrink.” On the professional side, Gingrich Shenk notes her amazement and gratitude as to how many of her students have started their own design studios; she mentors some of those students and hears from many. “We have really helped the horticultural industry as a whole here,” shares Gingrich Shenk.

“It’s simply wonderful.”

Two of Gingrich Shenk’s former students are none other than current Longwood instructors Jane Godshalk and Cres Motzi.

Motzi’s interest in floral design stems from her mother’s work in the garden while growing up in Hong Kong, before her family moved to New Jersey when Motzi was a teenager. “I had to find my space,” shares Motzi. “But when I think of my childhood, I think of always having plants in the house and my mother gardening.” Motzi took an early interest in floral design, fueled by a few courses and completing floral arrangements for friends. When she and her husband came to Longwood in 2001 to view the Christmas display, her husband picked up a catalog and, after paging through it, noted that Longwood offered a Certificate of Merit in Floral Design. Motzi jumped right in and worked closely with Gingrich Shenk during her studies.

Today, Motzi is a floral designer specializing in western design and Sogetsu Ikebana, as well as a Boerma Instituut in Holland graduate, European Masters Certification recipient, and an American Institute of Floral Designers certified floral evaluator and judge. Motzi has taught at Longwood since 2009. “I come from a family

Left to right: Jane Godshalk, Cres Motzi, Nancy Gingrich Shenk, and Midori Tanimune in action, putting into practice what they teach. Photos by William Hill and Becca Mathias.

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of teachers so my desire to teach has been there a long time,” shares Motzi. “The most rewarding part of teaching is when students walk away with a smile at the end of the class.

It’s hugely satisfying. They leave knowing something new and knowing they can do it.

There’s huge value in that.”

Contrasting Motzi’s childhood interest in gardening and floral design, Godshalk fell into floral design by accident. “I had earned my master’s in business and organizational behavior, but when I found flowers, everything changed.” Developing an interest in perennials after noticing their beauty in her garden, she came to Longwood to take a course and learn more about them … and the rest is history. After completing her Longwood perennials class and completing her first Garden Club of America flower show arrangement, Godshalk threw herself into the process of learning everything she could about floral design.

Today, Godshalk is an internationally recognized designer known for her fresh American style, a member of the American Institute of Floral Designers, and a recipient of national awards from the American Horticultural Society and Garden Club of America, among many other accolades.

Godshalk has been teaching at Longwood for more than a decade; in fact, Gingrich Shenk was one of her first teachers. Godshalk credits the three biggest influences on her career as her Longwood coursework; working with The Garden Club of America; and

exhibiting, judging, chairing committees, and working with designers via the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and the Philadelphia Flower Show.

“Teaching is what I am supposed to do,” shares Godshalk. “I teach that you should not be afraid of making a mistake.

One of my students once said this wonderful thing and I say it now too: ‘The difference between a good arrangement and a perfect arrangement is a broken flower.’”

Like Gingrich Shenk, Motzi, and Godshalk, instructor Midori Tanimune is a true force, but with her trademark gentle spirit and approach beloved by her colleagues and students. A Japan native, Tanimune has attained the Komon degree, only one step below the top rank of Sogetsu Ikebana artists, and is held in high regard throughout the international Ikebana community. While Tanimune’s approach to floral design and style is vastly different than that of Gingrich Shenk, their origins in floral design are remarkably, and tragically, similar. Tanimune lost her father when she was 11 years old. Before his passing, she and her father would walk together every night after dinner to their vegetable garden. Her father would talk to her about gardening, teach her to look at the elements around them, and especially notice the sky above. “After my father died, I didn’t know what to do. I was lost. My mother ended up saving me when she found my Ikebana school and enrolled me in it. I would go

Above: Midori Tanimune and Nancy Gingich Shenk greet one another before pitching in to assist in preparation for an April 2019 demonstration by distinguished British floral designer Simon Lycett. Photo

by Becca Mathias.

Left: Cres Motzi and Midori Tanimune collaborate on the tableau seen on this issue’s cover. Photo by William Hill.

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there to not only learn, but to talk to my teacher, who would listen to my sadness and help me express it. Ikebana was a way to fuel my sorrow,” Tanimune shares.

Tanimune found her way again through the practice of Sogetsu Ikebana, even forming an Ikebana club in high school to talk with her classmates about flowers, trees, and design. When she and her husband moved to America in 1968, they had “nothing but a working visa.” But building upon her talents and her passion for floral design, Tanimune found herself working with florists and then teaching design. She has now been teaching at Longwood for nearly 20 years. When it comes to teaching, Tanimune’s goal is to help her students “enjoy each moment facing nature, share happiness, and spread my passion to as many people as possible.

I want to share the beauty of Ikebana. It’s a meditation. With it, you must be happy.

Be thoughtful. Be calm. Make time for yourself while working on the material and only talk to the material. Let the busy part of life disappear.”

To Tanimune, the art of floral design is both deeply personal and universal. “I like to make people happy when looking at an arrangement of mine,” she shares. “I want them to see my soul through it. It’s a very beautiful way to make people think deeper about what beauty really is.”

We are grateful to have learned so much from all of them.

Coming Soon: Blooms & Bamboo The desire to share the beauty of floral design knows no bounds—no matter the style or teacher. Headmistress Akane Teshigahara, Sogetsu School of Ikebana, utilizes her international renown to communicate the beauty of Sogetsu Ikebana from a world stage. Longwood becomes Teshigahara’s stage during the Blooms & Bamboo: Chrysanthemum and Ikebana Sogetsu Artistry exhibition, on view from October 3 through November 17. This larger-thanlife exhibition of towering bamboo and natural elements that you can walk through is showcased amid the jawdropping splendor of thousands of blooming chrysanthemums trained into imaginative forms and shapes by Longwood’s

own horticulture masters.

The Japanese art of arranging flowers, Ikebana has a long and fascinating history. While its origin is unknown, many believe it came to Japan as a part of Buddhist practice. Ikebana was first officially recognized during the Muromachi Period, from the late 14th to the mid16th century, when much of what has become traditional Japanese art was established.

Ikebana is an expression of Japan’s deep connection with nature and features more than 1,000 different types of schools, including Sogetsu.

Founded in 1927 and headquartered in Tokyo, the Sogetsu School is built on the belief that Ikebana is a creative art in which one can

express his or her originality— an art that anyone can enjoy anytime, anywhere, and using any material.

As the granddaughter of the first Sogetsu headmaster, Sofu Teshigahara, Akane Teshigahara began studying Ikebana as a child, learning from her aunt and second headmistress, Kasumi Teshigahara. Today, as the leader of the Sogetsu School since 2001, Teshigahara works to spread the beauty and intent of Ikebana to a wide range of people through an annual exhibition in Tokyo, as well as live demonstrations, street exhibitions, and solo works throughout Japan.

We are so honored to welcome Teshigahara to our Gardens.

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Horticulture

Director of Outdoor Landscapes Andrea Brunsendorf surveys the blooms of Prunus subhitella (Higan cherry).

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Dreaming of Gardens

Our garden designers are as varied as the gardens themselves.

By Lynn Schuessler

Photography by Daniel Traub

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Senior Horticulturist April Bevans pauses between daily spring replanting efforts on the Flower Garden Walk.

Gardens inspire. But what inspires gardens?

The seed of a garden can be something touchable. Or something intuitive. An idea might grow from a baseball game on July Fourth, a visit to a candy shop, a page torn from a magazine. A design might take shape while daydreaming or gazing at skylines.

Here, our inspiration starts with a centuryold garden and the promise of each returning spring.

The 600-foot Flower Garden Walk welcomes the season with more than 125,000 colorful bulbs, over half of them tulips. The garden was Longwood’s first, planted by Pierre S. du Pont in the spring of 1907. For the past four years, Senior Horticulturist April Bevans has tended both its legacy and its changing seasons.

After 20 years of designing theater props and costumes, Bevans moved on to landscapes, starting at Longwood in 2006 under then Head Gardener Ed Broadbent.

She tackled some smaller spaces first, including a redesign of the Theatre Garden in 2014, and an extension of the brick walk in 2016 to welcome guests walking from the Peirce-du Pont House.

When designing Flower Garden Walk, “you first have to think about the color blocking,” says Bevans, referring to the prescribed design of the distinctly colored 30

beds. “At one time there was no overlap, but for the last three to four years we’ve been blurring the borders. We’re also trying pastel colors early on, for a softer step into spring.”

To create a sense of flow, Bevans plants a mix of bulbs that weaves like a ribbon through the garden. Made up of white, blue, and purple flowers like Camassia and Allium, the mix includes a tulip that matches the color of each border. Another way to unify the beds is to weave a base color—like chartreuse or burgundy— through every border, “to keep your eye skipping down the walkway.”

This summer, the brick walk takes on a softer, more wavy and meadowy look than the bright colors and splashy flowers used in the past. “That was actually fun to figure out, to go in a different direction. We’re using a mix that runs through the beds, like we do in the spring—but in summer it’s mostly foliage, with an annual that matches the border.”

“We’ve been doing the same thing for a long time, and it is a bit old-fashioned … the meadowy look is a little more fashionforward.” This gentle move forward might also be a circling back, a blurring not only of physical borders, but of time. “Back in Mr. du Pont’s day,” says Bevans, “the Flower Garden Walk was not so planned.

It’s had a few renditions over the years.”

Senior Horticulturist Jessica Whitehead’s passion for plants took root in her grandparents’ gardens, while her sense of color grew from her interest in oil painting. Inspired by childhood visits to Longwood, she graduated from the Professional Horticulture Program in 2012, and has designed the Square Fountain Garden since 2015.

Her ideas often begin as pages ripped from magazines— an art deco-y photo of banana-leaf wallpaper inspired this year’s garden and the mood she hopes to evoke: hot, sticky, and tropical. Whitehead chooses her palette of plants as she once chose paints, for the role each plays in the composition— considering not only color, but texture, size, and form.

“Tropicals grow fast in our hot humid climate and give us big impact in a short time,” says Whitehead. “This summer we’re using a black-stem banana, Musa ‘Thai Black’, in the Square Fountain Garden and Flower Garden Drive, to help unify those spaces. I really like that green, black, and pink combination—and I hope it’s going to feel a little steamy.”

The Square Fountain Garden is one of the few places where guests view it from above— in “a playful moment of surprise”—but also

“The longer you care for a space, the more intimately acquainted you become, so you can understand the microclimates and nuances that you need to factor in to create a really effective design.”

—Jessica Whitehead, Senior Horticulturist, Longwood Gardens

Senior Horticulturist Jessica Whitehead at the Square Fountain.

from within, so the design must account for both vantage points. “The experience must be cohesive when taken in all at once, so contrast works well from above. As you’re walking through, you appreciate ‘oh-mygosh’ moments like the closeup of a flower, or the way a leaf curls. There’s a chance to do something unexpected.”

“Designing is a challenge and a skill that’s constantly evolving,” says Whitehead.

Every year I’m able to take more factors into account—texture, height, form, cultural requirements—it becomes increasingly more complex but also more automatic.

The longer you care for a space, the more intimately acquainted you become, so you can understand the microclimates and nuances that you need to factor in to create a really effective design.”

When Director of Outdoor Landscapes Andrea Brunsendorf talks about garden transitions, she knows of what she speaks.

She herself has transitioned from her native Germany to work and study in global gardens, most recently as head gardener of the Inner Temple Garden in London.

At Longwood, where she was once an international trainee in ornamental horticulture, she has recently completed her first cycle of seasons as the new director of outdoor landscapes. “With fresh eyes,” 31

Miller keeps pencil and graph paper handy to draw ideas to scale, marking reference points—every corner of every object—first on paper and then on the lawn, staking each one and running string lines to mark the pattern.

Above: Senior Turfgrass Technician Derek Miller shares his step-by-step process for executing one of his turf patterns in the Italian Water Garden with International Exchange Student Shravya Peddigari.

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she is looking at how the gardens work as an entire space, hoping to create a more integrated experience—as though “the gardens are led by one hand.”

Brunsendorf looks to art and nature for design inspiration, and is encouraging her team of 18 full-time and 12 part-time staff to smooth the transitions between gardens by creating intentional echoes of garden elements, not only from space to space, but from season to season, and from each garden to the surrounding landscape.

Inspired by designers like Piet Oudolf, of New York City’s High Line, Brunsendorf charts a plant’s flower, foliage, and structural interest for each season, seeking to enhance the role of individual plants in the garden— using foliage as a focus before or after flowering, or letting seed heads remain through the winter. She uses shrubs to create layers of height in the garden and to add beauty throughout the year, so the garden invites you in no matter the season.

She refers to this “harmony” of gardens as Gesamtkunstwerk, a term that expresses the totality of an artwork and its elements, like an opera—such as the role the adjacent compartment gardens can play in supporting the “crescendo” that is Flower Garden Walk.

With a master’s in conservation, Brunsendorf believes that horticulture provides ecological benefits beyond beauty—preserving the soil, providing for wildlife, integrating the garden into a balanced ecosystem, and teaching others about the environment.

“Pierre du Pont was all about innovation,” says Brunsendorf. “I feel that innovation should include reinterpreting some of our design intents for those spaces, to make

them more relevant to future designs—for example, ecological planting designs.”

Brunsendorf’s biggest challenge? “To keep that fresh set of eyes.”

Without the contrast created by light and a single organic element—a bent blade of grass—the mowing designs created by Senior Turfgrass Technician Derek Miller don’t exist.

But when correctly implemented, the designs delight and surprise. Imagine walking by the Italian Water Garden on July Fourth, where the soothing backdrop of a summer lawn now catches your eye with a green-hued flag and a starburst of stripes.

Here, less is more. One plant: coolseason tall fescue turfgrass. Two colors: light green, when the leaf blade bends away from you; and dark green, when it bends toward you. Add a few simple symbols of the holiday, identifiable no matter your age or background.

Miller always loved sports, and often took notice of turfgrass designs on ballfields.

In college he worked with the grounds crew for Minor League Baseball’s Trenton Thunder, learning to implement those very patterns. Seven years ago, Miller brought his knowledge of turfgrass science and his talent for design to Longwood.

“Anything can inspire,” says Miller, including Longwood’s fireworks displays, which he captured in turfgrass in 2016. He keeps pencil and graph paper handy to draw ideas to scale, marking reference points— every corner of every object—first on paper and then on the lawn, staking each one and running string lines to mark the pattern.

Miller uses a roller, broom, or highpowered hose—best for intricate angles—to bend the blades of grass. He goes over each

area five times, then lets the grass spring up a little. “That’s when the sun really reflects off the leaf blades.” The process takes multiple days, and the design usually lasts about a week.

“But we start a month or two ahead of time to focus on the health of the plant, because grass gets easily stressed in hot, humid weather.”

One lesson Miller has learned: “It’s okay to fail, because that’s how a design like this evolves and you come up with something new, just by trial and error.”

“Gardens are art, and turf is my canvas,” says Miller. But echoes of baseball remain— with his July Fourth designs in the Italian Water Garden, Miller hits a homerun every time.

Before there are plants in the Main Conservatory, there are pictures of plants, plus Photoshopped images of what a garden space might look like, often a year in advance.

There are wall-sized planting charts of the Orangery and Exhibition Hall for each of three timeframes—January through September, Chrysanthemum Festival, and Christmas—detailing the location and quantity of each species and cultivar. That was 43,000 plants in 2018, all full-sized and flowering when planted.

And before there’s a garden design, there’s a designer who gardened. Associate Director of Display Design Jim Sutton has planned the seasonal displays at Longwood—everything under glass—for 11 years. But his 10 years here as a gardener, mostly in the Main Conservatory, inform his design. He knows when plants will bloom and how long they’ll last; he knows the columns, the roof, and the shade they create; he understands scale, viewpoint, and how the lighting at night affects plant color.

Right: Derek Miller’s July Fourth, 2018 turf design at the Italian Water Garden. Photo

by Derek Miller.

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East Conservatory Manager Karl Gercens (left) and Associate Director, Display Design Jim Sutton review schematic planting plans for the Conservatory in the Design Studio.

Sutton works closely with East Conservatory Manager Karl Gercens and Horticulturist Matt Peterson to select the numbers of crops for each season, and with Production Manager Jon Webb to see if their wish list is doable. “If only the plants could read,” says Sutton. Each Thursday they review the list of crops that are actually available. If the plants don’t follow the plan as written, they tweak the design.

“A fair amount of logistics come into play,” says Sutton. “But at the end of the day, it’s always about the aesthetics.”

When it comes to Christmas, Sutton leads the theme development process. Where does he get his ideas? “I buy every Christmas magazine on the market.” He keeps files of ideas by topic, and reviews his long list of past themes, which can be reimagined. “This year we’re doing shapes—traditional shapes of the season, along with natural patterns.”

Sutton works with project leaders on ideas for all the gardens, inside and out, which he 34

compiles into a presentation for the senior team and advisory committee.

One of those project leaders is April Bevans. She has led the Music Room team for six years, drawing on her theater experience to create a backstory that brings the design to life and fleshes out the tiniest of details. For the upcoming theme, Bevans created some very convincing Christmas “candy” as her shape, and was inspired by a visit to a Philadelphia candy shop for the setting.

In the Main Conservatory, Gercens and Peterson transform Sutton’s carefully crafted “plans on paper” into daily “design on your feet” moments: the art of arranging what’s blooming and beautiful and available right now.

“It’s a flower show every day of the year,” says Gercens, who loves the excitement of the constantly changing indoor gardens, and whose 21 years of experience complement the horticultural passion of two-year rookie

Peterson, who tends the most highly maintained area in the Gardens: the Orangery and Exhibition Hall.

Peterson is there when guests react, making him a valuable member of the design team. He documents each display with notes and photos, capturing a moment he’d like to re-create—Genista and Pelargonium cordifolium read so well together in a “design on the fly” in the Orangery this spring, they’re scheduled for an encore next year in the East Conservatory.

Since the two horticulturists understand the plants and spaces so well, they suggest many of the plant combinations to Sutton, whom Gercens calls “the Martha Stewart of Longwood”—the face and voice that presents the displays, and the unifying hand that guides them. “But he’s got so many detailoriented, talented people feeding into that.”

Gardener buy-in enhances garden design.

“Then you’re willing to do the harder work,” says Peterson, who wants a blue carpet of

Above: Horticulturist Matt Peterson and Karl Gercens inspecting a sweep of Plectranthus ‘Mona Lavender’ in the Main Conservatory.

So much thought goes into every plant.

Every walkway. Every day. “The show opens at nine,” says Peterson.

“And we’re sure not going to put on a mediocre show.”

Left: Matt Peterson swapping out Pericallis in the Orangery.

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Muscari in the Orangery next spring, which he’ll have to change every 10 days to keep it looking fresh. That’s only one walkway.

There are eight others to care for. “But the image in my head is so spectacular. I want that design to blow you away.”

Gercens believes that “a colorful story often accompanies the best designs.”

When he tells you about the first time he saw the bronze-leaved glorybower—a staple of our winter display—growing on Grand Cayman 19 years ago, he strengthens your connection to the display. “That’s what Longwood’s about—creating a moment of inspiration for each and every person.”

So much thought goes into every plant.

Every walkway. Every day. “The show opens at nine,” says Peterson. “And we’re sure not going to put on a mediocre show.”

The seeds of design are sown in the Student Exhibition Garden, the capstone project of our second-year Professional Horticulture students. The four gardens on display this summer exemplify the process of garden design, including one called “Woven.”

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As part of their landscape design coursework, Christine Varga and Nate Townsend were tasked with designing, budgeting, constructing, and maintaining a display garden based on the theme “Seeds.”

A view of the Philadelphia skyline, once the world’s leading exporter of textiles, inspired Varga to create a garden that would focus on natural sources of fibers and dyes.

Townsend, with his passion for growing, helped to source about 35 representative but hard-to-find plants and seeds, from tropicals to natives to annuals. Stroll the path that weaves through the garden and you’ll find Gossypium herbaceum ‘Nigra’, a deep purpleleaf cultivar of cotton; Nelumbo nucifera (lotus), whose stem fibers are used for cloth; and Xanthorhiza simplicissima (yellow-root), whose root makes a bright yellow dye … among other delights.

Artfully “woven” into the design of this garden are the symbolic fruits of their labors.

Six colorful silk panels, hand-dyed by Winona Quigley of Green Matters Natural Dye Company in Lancaster County, drape a semicircle of 12-foot-tall arches, inspired by

Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s 2005 exhibit in Central Park called “The Gates.” With the guidance of Longwood Senior Carpenter Joe Cornette, Varga fashioned the arches from hem-fir, and used a Japanese woodburning technique, shou-sugi-ban, to preserve and beautify the wood.

A pleasant surprise of the design process for both students was meeting so many people willing to help, both within and outside Longwood. Avid weaver Linda Shinn shared information about natural dyes; Karl Gercens reviewed plant lists; Nancy Kane, Betsy Beltz, and Tim Jennings helped with questions about sourcing and propagating plants.

From the tradition of Flower Garden Walk to each student's dream of what a garden can be, the art of design at Longwood spans gardens, seasons, and generations. But if there is one design philosophy that is woven throughout our Gardens—east to west, indoors and out, within each seasoned and budding horticulturist—it is a passion for beauty and the quest for excellence.

A pleasant surprise of the design process for both students was meeting so many people willing to help, both within and outside Longwood.

Above: Senior Carpenters Douglas Bowman and Joe Cornette work with Carpenter Scott Taylor and Professional Horticulture

Student Nate Townsend to install one of the vertical supports for the 12-foottall arches in the Student Exhibition Garden.

Above: The finished “Woven” installation in the Student Exhibition Garden. Photo by Carol DeGuiseppi.

Left: Professional Horticulture Student Nate Townsend inspects Foeniculum vulgare ‘Purpureum’ (bronze fennel) in the student greenhouse prior to installation in the Student Exhibition Garden.

Opposite: After burning the wood with a torch using the shou-sugi-ban technique, Professional Horticulture Student Christine Varga applies a boiled linseed oil varnish to protect the wood.

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A Century of Floral Sun Parlors: Part One Conclusion

The Seed is Planted

The conclusion of Part One in our series on Longwood’s great Conservatory follows Pierre du Pont’s early business and travel experiences at the turn of the century.

By Colvin Randall

Photomontage (opposite) features the following images, clockwise from top left: Pierre’s handwritten list of the horticultural inventory of the florist business he acquired in 1898; fragment from 1901 Pan-American Exposition (Library of Congress); rose, by photographer David Ward; Pierre’s handwritten March 1897 horticultural inventory list; portrait of P.S. du Pont, 1886, freshman at MIT, age 17; postcard owned by Mr. du Pont perhaps showing some of his development efforts in South Lorain, Ohio; portrait of P.S. du Pont, c. 1885–1890; royal palms in Rio de Janeiro, 1905; fragment from 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair (Library of Congress); and Christiana Gardens invoice letterhead, 1901. All sources Hagley Museum and Library unless otherwise specified.

Photomontage by Steve Fenton.

Although there was a 16-by-22-foot greenhouse at the family’s Wilmington homestead Saint Amour (probably sister Louisa’s “rose house”), Pierre du Pont was unprepared to operate his first commercial greenhouse business at age 28. The Wilmington florist De Voecht and De Wilde had failed, and Pierre held the first mortgage on the property so he became heir to it by default, after paying off claims totaling $421.69. The seven greenhouses, tenant and boiler houses, and barn were located on two acres at Garasches Lane in south Wilmington across the Christina River.

The facilities had been used to grow wholesale roses and carnations for the Wilmington and Philadelphia markets. The new owner wrote to the Henry Dreer Co. nursery in Philadelphia inquiring about someone to manage the business and to buy into it.

Pierre had yet to find someone three weeks later when he placed an ad in American Gardening magazine. His lawyer, W. S. Hilles, could only give slight encouragement: “I sincerely hope that in your new venture, as in all others, you may prove eminently successful and of use to the community, but I am afraid, unless you get a purchaser or a renter for the property, you will find considerably more outlay than receipts for the business….”

In late June 1898, John Rollo was hired to run the operation, which had been renamed first Christina then Christiana Gardens.

Rollo was given authority to purchase supplies, and he and four or five other men used more than 10,000 feet of hemlock lumber to repair the buildings. By August, 550 mums had been planted inside, with other stock established outdoors.

Pierre would periodically meet with Rollo to go over the accounts and to review progress reports. In September, the manager wished to visit various growers of carnations in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. He also had extended the “Palm House” and wished to buy appropriate stock in Philadelphia to fill it.

Pierre had his doubts: “As to the matter of the palm stock, it does not seem that the business will warrant our spending more than a necessary amount of money until the business is in better shape. We have so far much exceeded our expectations in the way of spending for repairs and stock so that we have not much left for the palm experiment.

I think that we had better not invest in the palms this season. This will save you considerable time in the tending of them and will also save you the trip to Philadelphia.”

By 1901, the Christiana Gardens’ letterhead had been expanded to read “Decorative Plants-Floral Designs-Bedding Plants-Cut Flowers.” Pierre no longer resided in Delaware and needed someone to look after the property, collecting the rent. William Wheatley agreed to act in the owner’s absence, but by year’s end Pierre himself was searching for a new tenant.

The renovated property had again deteriorated, so he preferred that the tenant repair it himself and pay only a very low rent. Applicants didn’t think this a sound business venture for a florist. Finally, in 1904 Pierre decided to remove the glass and to dismantle the boiler, when suddenly a buyer showed interest. The entire property was sold for a grand $425.

Despite his boyhood interest in greenhouses, Pierre’s first venture with gardening under glass had not been an overwhelming success. In 1901, referring to brother H. Belin du Pont’s new ranch in Arizona, he noted: “…if he does not make out better with it than I have with my greenhouse property I think that he would do well to plant Russian thistle or anything else that will absolutely prevent any possibility of using the ground.”

In February 1899, Pierre left Wilmington and the DuPont Company and moved to Lorain, Ohio, to become president of the financially troubled Johnson Company, until then a producer of street rails and of electric trolley equipment. A subsidiary, the Sheffield Land Company, controlled 3,700 acres of 39

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farmland surrounding a steel mill, which had just been sold to another organization.

Much of Pierre’s time would now be spent as a land developer. He was to oversee the construction of about 150 houses “in order to get people in the humor of building and taking lots.” Plans and specifications had to be drawn up, contracts let out, and sewers and pavements constructed. Once property values had risen, the Johnson Company could, hopefully, liquidate its landholdings at a substantial profit.

The new president’s job demanded an inquisitive eye and supervisory abilities, and he noted that he would spend an afternoon “walking around surveying the improvements on our property….” After four months of activity, he could report that drainage ditches had been successfully installed. The main cross street was not flooded in the least after a severe storm, and it was no longer necessary to use boards at the crossings.

At first, Pierre lived in the house of former 40

company president Arthur Moxham, but by early 1900, he had moved into a new double house that he opened into one by installing a few doors. Basic horticulture on what must have seemed like the frontier was not neglected. He wrote to his sister Louisa: “I have had a man fixing up the lawn a little during the past few days and he has succeeded in getting out most of the stumps and smoothing the earth in front of the house. He will put out the grass seed next week and I hope to have a few blades showing before you come out here.” The herb garden was something of a joke: “We have a large kitchen garden in the back yard consisting of two parsley plants and some mint. The whole garden is just the size of a folded newspaper and I notice that Louise [a maid?] has protected the plants for the night by placing a paper over the whole.” That year, Pierre grew sweet peas, coleus, cannas, and caladiums.

The next spring, he was more ambitious.

He laid out a scheme for beautifying his

“The Pan-American is in some ways more impressive than the Chicago fair. The buildings are partly colored and in good taste which adds a great deal to their beauty.”

—Pierre S. du Pont

Below: The 400-by-800-foot 7.5-acre Palace of Horticulture at the 1904 St. Louis fair featured elaborate displays of fruits and vegetables, some encircled by an elevated model train. Library of Congress.

Above: Overlooking the Fountain of Nature, the Horticulture Building at the Pan-American was 240 feet high with octagonal towers at the corners and covered 1.5 acres. It was designed by Boston architects Peabody and Stearns with Romanesque overtones. The building was filled with elaborate floral, fruit, and vegetable displays from 25 states and hosted numerous flower shows and horticultural conventions.

It also displayed a new-fangled coldstorage system for preserving horticultural and agricultural produce.

Library of Congress.

Opposite: Aerial view of the 1901 Pan-American Exposition. The Rainbow City covered 350 acres, attracted more than 8 million visitors, and cost 25 cents to enter. Large sections were filled with old-fashioned rainbow-hued parterre-like flower beds, many electrically illuminated at night, that complemented the rainbow-colored buildings. Some pools featured aquatic plants, including Victoria water-platters.

The Horticulture Building is marked (1).

Library of Congress.

premises by adding a few flower beds. And he had a gardener prepare the soil and plant the flowers. The value of trees was not forgotten.

Across the street from the house was a wooded park that needed to be thinned. “This afternoon I am going out with a pot of paint,” he wrote, “to mark the trees that are worth saving so that the lumber men will not cut off everything regardless of future appearances of the park.” He predicted that elms which he had planted the year before and that were all coming out nicely would make a fine row in a few years. He also observed: “Our other trees look much better this year owing, I think, to having omitted the usual spring trimming which generally reduced the trees to the condition of powder yard willows after cutting for charcoal.”

The Ohio climate in 1901 was not the best for starting lawns. Attempting a “fierce struggle against mud” on the newly graded sites in Lorain, Pierre ordered enough grass seed to sow five acres of lawn. He noted,

almost with a sigh, “I hope that our work will be successful. Grass would add very much to the attractiveness of the town.”

Despite desperate efforts to get the street lawns started before hot weather, a dry spell just after seeding made germination poor; just half of the seed came up. Pierre could only hope that his cannas, caladiums, and roses would make a good showing to help take away from the bare appearance of the lawn surrounding his house. When in 1902 he returned permanently to Wilmington to again work for the DuPont Company, he no doubt appreciated all the more the established family gardens along the Brandywine.

Pierre’s early travels, both for business and for pleasure, exposed him to a variety of landscape and horticultural situations.

As early as his MIT years, he had noted: “the hyacinths, pansies, etc. in the public gardens are very fine this year and look well.” While living in Ohio, he advised his mother, who

was to visit Massachusetts, “if you have a chance you should take a drive through the Parks in Boston…they are worth seeing.”

By comparison, the parks in Cleveland were “quite pretty though not very large.”

In September 1900, Pierre visited Phoenix, Arizona, and was “pleasantly disappointed in the green appearance of the landscape.”

He noticed the ornamental effect of palms, umbrella trees, oleander, figs, oranges, and pomegranates, as well as the technique of watering by irrigation.

When in June 1901, he visited the PanAmerican Exposition in Buffalo, New York, he was especially impressed by the trees and landscaping: “The Pan-American is in some ways more impressive than the Chicago fair. The buildings are partly colored and in good taste which adds a great deal to their beauty. Of course the whole thing is not on as grand a scale as the World’s Fair but a large part of the grounds are more beautiful owing to the natural advantages in trees, etc.”

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Three years later in September 1904, he visited the huge Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis. Pierre made reservations for three rooms at the Hotel Washington for September 18-28 and was accompanied by his mother and sisters Isabella, Margaretta, and Louisa. There was plenty to see and hear at this largestyet fair, including fountains and the future Wanamaker Organ.

Late in 1904, Pierre traveled to California on business. From San Francisco he wrote: “I do not know what season it is supposed to be here.

Some say that it is the rainy season but it has not rained either today or for several days. The temperature and grass make one think of spring but the trees that shed leaves have turned as if it were fall.” In Santa Cruz, he stopped at the gardens of the “old Peyton house” and noted that the roses in bloom were much better than any in Delaware except during June. He was delighted to dine on fresh strawberries and raspberries at that time of year. From Del Monte, he described the hotel gardens: “The grounds at the Del Monte Hotel are very beautiful everything so fresh and green….

There is a very fine maze in the gardens… modeled after the one at Hampton Court England. John [Raskob] succeeded in finding the center but Mr. Penniman and I had to call for help. After we learned the way to get in John made a guide which enabled us to walk in without a miss the second time, as this took ten minutes fast walking you understand that it is not easy to get in the first time.”

Pierre made his second trip to Europe early in 1905 as the first part of a journey that would take him to South America on company business. There wasn’t much time for sightseeing, but Pierre visited Notre Dame, the ancestral town of Nemours, and probably Fontainebleau, and stopped briefly in Brussels and in Lisbon.

Several weeks later, he arrived in South America and was quite taken with Rio de Janeiro but disappointed that he could not visit the botanical gardens: “We took a long trolley ride to a suburb called Gavia the road to which passes along the water front for a long distance then passing back to the country runs past the botanical gardens which are quite celebrated.

Unfortunately we could not get into the gardens as they were closed but we saw a great deal of them from the car. The great feature of the whole ride was the variety of tropical foliage

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Above: The 1904 St. Louis fair filled 1,272 acres of parkland with 1,576 buildings centered around the 1,200-foot Grand Basin with Cascades (1).

The Ivory City’s 128 acres of buildings included Festival Hall (2) with the world’s

then-largest pipe organ later acquired by John Wanamaker and moved to his new Philadelphia emporium; and the Horticulture (3) and 21-acre Agriculture (4) Buildings. Outdoors there were 20 million plants, a

112-foot-diameter floral clock, and even a 5-acre living map of the US with native plants from each state. The fair welcomed about 20 million guests during its seven-month run.

Library of Congress.

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Postcard view of Maze at Del Monte Hotel.

In 1912, Pierre wrote to the hotel requesting the dimensions of the maze and its paths, and a plan if possible. Longwood Gardens Library & Archives, gift of Claire Sawyers.

most prominent being the royal palms.”

He also noted: “Everything looked very clean but as they have had rain continuously for a couple of weeks the cleanliness may not be altogether the fault of the inhabitants. Rio is certainly a place of bad smells though when one is in the gardens of the houses the perfume is very agreeable. It takes quite a little practice to be able to breathe at the right time to take in the good and to discard the bad odors.” Later, in Buenos Aires, he took an automobile ride through a very pretty but small park, located in the good residential district.

The following year, 1906, Pierre traveled to Cuba. Stopping en route at Port Antonio, Jamaica, he observed: “The island is mountainous but covered with green everywhere. The plants are all tropical and very luxuriant as rains are frequent especially at night.” From Kingston, Jamaica, he wrote: “We stopped at the botanical gardens at Castleton and enjoyed them very much.

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Every kind of tropical plant is to be seen there and all in very good condition.”

After his return to Wilmington from Ohio and his experiences in land development, Pierre became interested in adding what he termed “landscape features” on the family properties centered around Saint Amour on the outskirts of Wilmington. In 1904, he requested information about plants from four nurseries, especially for the “landscape effects” produced by the New York Fifth Avenue firm of Siebrecht & Son, Florists & Nurserymen. In September 1904, he requested that a Siebrecht representative visit him in Wilmington to “make some suggestions or draw up a plan of improvement” for about 10 acres of undeveloped lawn which, until recently, had been pasture land. Pierre explained: “It has been my idea to prepare a plan which could be used to ultimately develop the tract of which I have written you but which would not be completed perhaps for two or three years. The first year I would

do such grading and planting as would be necessary to start the shrubs requiring the longest time for development. The following years I would finish out the plan. This had best be discussed on the ground….”

Mr. H. A. Siebrecht suggested that, first, they do a topographical survey of the land.

Pierre agreed, and a map at 50-foot scale, costing $20 per acre for now some 30 acres, was to be prepared. This survey, Siebrecht noted, once made would always be useful.

But by November, Pierre was not at all pleased with what was being accomplished.

The men sent from Siebrecht’s landscape engineering department did not understand that a detailed map was to be made. They worked one day, disappeared, and did not return. “If you are pursuing what you consider good business policy,” wrote Pierre, “I should like to break my connection with your house as soon as possible….with this unfortunate beginning it does not seem to me likely that a satisfactory ending will come about.”

Pierre’s Postcards Pierre saved about 113 snapshots and postcards of the 1905 trip to South America and the Caribbean, and the 1906 trip to Jamaica and Cuba.

The collection is housed in the archives of the Hagley Museum and Library.

Traveling to Jamaica, 1906, aboard the Admiral Sampson.

Left to right, P.S. du Pont, Mr. Williamson, and Russell Dunham.

Pierre’s 1905 snapshot of royal palms in Rio de Janeiro, probably the famous allée in the Jardim Botânico.

Postcard of the Castleton Botanical Gardens.

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Nevertheless, he agreed to continue with the work and, in addition, approved the preparation of a planting plan, on a watercolor stretch, for $165. This cost would be rebated if Siebrecht & Son did the planting.

By December 1904, the survey was, by Siebrecht standards, finished, but Pierre wished to test the accuracy of the map before accepting it. Siebrecht also sent the planting plan which listed an enormous amount of material, enough to supply a nursery. The specifications included 175 Norway spruce, 81 blue spruce, 175 Lombardy poplars, 110 sycamore maples, 75 Japanese maples, 465 roses, 420 spireas, 400 kalmias, 320 hydrangeas, and 10 carloads of Rhododendron maximum. In all, Siebrecht wished to sell Pierre 6,790 woody plants and 2,970 herbaceous plants, a total of 9,760 plants, for $7,795.65.

Because Pierre was abroad in the spring of 1905, he could not pursue the matter further until his return. When he next studied the plan in August, he was not optimistic. “While the planting plan may be correct,” he wrote to Siebrecht, “I have very grave doubts as to whether you are in any way relieving me of the burden of making sure that the details of the plan have been properly thought out.”

He concluded that it would be best to proceed no further and to settle up for the work already done.

However, by October 1905, Pierre had decided that the survey map itself was wrong. “It is certain that I have lost all faith and interest in what you are doing,” he wrote, “and that any of the results forced upon me in the end will be thrown away as I could not undertake the risk of using faulty maps.” Before he would pay the bill, he insisted that he receive a map which would prove accurate in various tests that he might apply. A corrected map, certified by the engineer, was prepared, but Pierre wanted guaranteed accuracy. If he should find errors on the final map, then he was to be released from all payment.

Siebrecht wished him to specify precisely what was wrong. Annoyed, Pierre replied:

These two practical garden design books from our Rare Book Collection were purchased

by Pierre S. du Pont in 1905. How to Make a Flower Garden: A Manual of Practical Information and Suggestions by Wilhelm Miller was published in 1903 by Doubleday, Page & Co. How to Plan the Home Grounds

by Samuel Parsons, Jr., and illustrated by W.E. Spader was published in 1905 by Doubleday, Page & Co. Longwood Gardens Library & Archives. Photo by David Ward.

“You must readily concede that if I am to check every item on the map and tell you whether or not it is correct there is not a bit of use paying you $800 for the privilege of doing the work myself.”

Finally, in exasperation, he went over the property and compared it to the map.

Without using a tape measure or any other instrument, he was able to detect more than 70 errors, mostly in the number and spacing of the existing trees. The map, he declared, had been found inaccurate. He returned all plans and blueprints to the company.

In July 1906, a lawyer representing the firm demanded payment of the $1,005 bill. Pierre refused. A year later, a second lawyer tried to collect, but the account remained unpaid. In 1912, Pierre learned that he would be served with a surprise summons while in New York City on business. In 1917, still a third lawyer took up the cause, but a year later, in 1918, Siebrecht & Son withdrew their claim because a suit would have entailed two trials and at least one appeal. Pierre believed his actions justified and no doubt would have spent a small fortune to prove it.

This initial encounter with a commercial design organization had not been very productive. It did little to prove the value of using “professionals” who were less meticulous than their client. Most importantly, as Pierre informed Siebrecht in May 1906, “during the 18 months in which you have been at work I have completed my plans and committed myself as to the development of the property.”

The previous autumn, he had written to a New York publisher, Doubleday, Page & Co., desiring “any work on flower gardening and ornamental shrubs….That is, a work descriptive of varieties of plants, their habits and proper care.” Subsequently, he purchased How to Make a Flower Garden ($1.76) by Wilhelm Miller, and How to Plan the Home Grounds ($1.10) by Samuel Parsons, Jr. Within a week of ordering these publications, he visited the Andorra Nurseries in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, to inspect nursery stock. Requesting an estimate on a variety of plant materials, he expressed his

by-now characteristic concern for details: “The rhododendrons are to be of the size shown to me at your nurseries; that is, with 15 or 20 buds. The hydrangeas are to be of the size that carry 12 to 20 blooms and the peonies should carry 5 or 6 blooms.”

Pierre ordered azaleas, rhododendrons, hydrangeas, and peonies that fall and over 20 species of trees and shrubs the following spring (1906), all of which were planted at Saint Amour. He personally examined the entire shipment and noted the condition of each plant, especially when its survival seemed in doubt. He had no intention of paying for plants that wouldn’t grow.

It was probably at this time that he wrote out in longhand a monthly schedule of gardening activities, presumably for Saint Amour. The technical quality of the information, dealing with planting, mulching, pruning, fertilization, and insect control, suggests that Pierre read through his two garden books and through catalogs that he may have had and jotted down relevant instructions. He was fast becoming interested in the details of gardening.

In retrospect, the experience with Siebrecht & Son had been a disappointment but not a total loss. In disgust, Pierre took matters into his own hands. He knew what he wanted better than anyone, and, considering his previous training and interests, and his meticulous and demanding nature, he was quite capable of completing the project himself. What was unfamiliar he quickly learned, and he enjoyed it all. Why bother with “professionals” unless it was absolutely necessary?

In his first 36 years, Pierre du Pont had accumulated a remarkable variety of experience. His family responsibilities, education, travels, and business career provided training, exposure, and confidence.

These years of preparation, combined with ever-growing financial resources, established a basis from which he vigorously pursued his personal and artistic interests on a greater and grander scale, especially in the development of gardens and greenhouses at Longwood.

A Century of Floral Sun Parlors: Part Two will appear in the next issue of Longwood Chimes.

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End Notes

A Million Thanks Our Volunteer Program reached a very special milestone in January 2019 when it recorded 1,000,000 volunteer hours served.

That is quite an accomplishment considering the humble beginnings of the program. It was on October 10, 1989 that our first Volunteer Coordinator Don Gregg enrolled Hugo Taraboletti as Longwood’s first official volunteer.

He worked in the Production Division of Horticulture and amassed 10,952 volunteer hours before his death on November 17, 2003.

Today our volunteer ranks are more than 800 men and women strong and include teams in every department and area of Longwood.

“Longwood could not function without our volunteers,” says President and CEO Paul B. Redman. “Their dedication, enthusiasm, and contributions are integral to our mission and success.”

Don Gregg led the program until his retirement in 1999. The program then went through a period of transition until 2002 when Dave Thompson took over the role from Dane Dougherty and went on to lead the program for the next decade until his retirement in 2012. Director, Volunteer Services Sally Kutyla took over in February 2012.

Carol Majors holds the distinction as the longest-serving volunteer with 28 years of service. Close on her heels are Wendy Cotton with 27 years and Mary Szewczyk with 26 years in the program. Two more volunteers join our 25 years-or-more group in 2019: K. Lynn King and Georgia Black.

Volunteers Ed Leinbach and Mary Zwiebel have been racking up the hours for many years. At the end of 2018, Ed had given 8,212 hours and Mary was close behind with 8,117 hours. Mary Jane Pahls rounds out the top three with 5,755 hours served.

We salute all our volunteers for their dedication, enthusiasm, and generosity to Longwood.

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Our Volunteer Program reaches a special milestone on the cusp of its 3oth anniversary.

Above: Volunteer Ed Leinbach in the Research Lab. Photo

by Morgan Horell.

Above: Volunteer Mary Szewczyk pruning bonsai in the Conservatory. Photo by Sally Kutyla.

Left: Volunteer Wendy Cotton at the 2019 Volunteer Appreciation Event. Photo

by Carol DeGuiseppi.

“Longwood could not function without our volunteers. Their dedication, enthusiasm, and contributions are integral to our mission and success.”

—Paul B. Redman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Longwood Gardens

Left: Volunteer Georgia Black at the 2019 Volunteer Appreciation Event after receiving her 25 Year Award. Photo by Ken Cangin.

Below: Volunteer K. Lynn King receives her 25 Year Award from Director, Volunteer Services Sally Kutyla. Photo

by Jennifer Perilli.

Above: Volunteer Carol Major at the 2019 Volunteer Appreciation Event. Photo by Carol DeGuiseppi.

Below: Volunteer Mary Zwiebel in the Library. Photo by William Hill.

Below: Volunteer Mary Jane Pahls in the Orchid House. Photo by Heather Coletti.

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Longwood Chimes

No. 299 Summer 2019

Front Cover Special thanks to Nancy Gingrich Shenk, Jane Godshalk, Cres Motzi, and Midori Tanimune for their expertise in creating the beautiful floral tableau for our front cover image, and to Director, Continuing Education Matthew Ross for helping coordinate this effort. Additional thanks to Continuing Education Assistant Betty Young for preparing the plant materials for this display. Photo by David Ward.

Inside Covers Inside Front: Design inspiration images for upcoming seasons are pinned up on a wall in Jim Sutton’s Design Studio.

Photo by Daniel Traub.

Inside Back: View of Art Director Steve Fenton’s inspiration wall in the Creative Services studio, where three designers convene daily to work on visual communications for the Gardens, including print, digital, and environmental signage.

Photo by Carol Gross.

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Editorial Board Marnie Conley Patricia Evans Steve Fenton Julie Landgrebe Katie Mobley Colvin Randall David Sleasman James S. Sutton Matt Taylor, Ph.D. Brian W. Trader, Ph.D.

Contributors This Issue Longwood Staff and Volunteer Contributors Kristina Aguilar Plant Records Manager Hank Davis Volunteer Photographer Carol DeGuiseppi Volunteer Photographer Erin Feeney Associate Director, Landscape Architecture and Program Design Gillian Hayward Library Public Services and Research Assistant William Hill Volunteer Photographer Becca Mathias Volunteer Photographer Maureen McCadden Digital Resource Specialist Dottie Miles Associate Director, Interpretation & Exhibitions Derek Miller Senior Turfgrass Technician Matthew Ross Director, Continuing Education Judy Stevenson Archivist David Ward Volunteer Photographer Jessica Whitehead Senior Horticulturist Other Contributors Kate Fahey Photographer Art Rozzi Pyrotechnician Lynn Schuessler Copyeditor Daniel Traub Photographer

Distribution Longwood Chimes is mailed to Longwood Gardens Staff, Pensioners, Volunteers, and Gardens Preferred and Premium Level Members, and is available electronically to all Longwood Gardens Members via longwoodgardens.org.

Longwood Chimes is produced twice annually by and for Longwood Gardens, Inc.

Contact As we went to print, every effort was made to ensure the accuracy of all information contained within this publication. Contact us at chimes@longwoodgardens.org. © 2019 Longwood Gardens.

All rights reserved.

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“Design is a plan for arranging elements in such a way as best to accomplish a particular purpose.”

—Charles Eames

Longwood Gardens is the living legacy of Pierre S. du Pont, inspiring people through excellence in garden design, horticulture, education, and the arts.

Longwood Gardens P.O. Box 501 Kennett Square, PA 19348 longwoodgardens.org

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