Longwood Gardens, nestled in a suburb of Philadelphia, is a magical escape from reality. I have been to their Christmas at Longwood Gardens event in December and now I was able to experience Longwood in the late summer/fall.
Longwood Gardens announced in September 2021 that they would be having a new exhibit featuring different light installations. I knew then, I had to go. I patiently waited through the Winter and Spring and when the Summer rolled around and it was HOT! I decided/forgot about this until I saw an ad on Instagram to wait until September in hopes of it being cool and more enjoyable to walk around.
Kyle booked tickets for us on September 10th and I made reservations for dinner beforehand.
While our dinner beforehand was good, our adventure before Longwood Gardens started in Maryland. You can read all about that in the friYAY Favorites post on September 16th.
When we arrived to Longwood Gardens, we were shocked to see the entrance was closed. My heart sank. Did we miss something? As we continued on the road, we found another entrance that was opened. We pulled in and realized this was an auxiliary lot. There were cars parked and there were some school busses parked as well with attendants standing outside.
We decided to park and as we walked up to the busses, we were greeted by the friendly attendants with Longwood Gardens tags on. We got on the bus to find a few other guests and I asked the driver, “is Longwood that crowded tonight that this auxiliary lot needs to be used?” His response was “sure is! Its sold out!” I was shocked. I didn’t realize how popular it was. He explained as we got moving, that he would drop us off at the entrance and then once we are done, we will go to the same spot to get a ride back to the lot. He also said that they will run this service until the last car leaves the auxiliary lot. Neat, I thought to myself.
As we pulled up to the entrance, there were a lot of people milling around and the most curious thing we noticed was how many people had lawn chairs with them. As we walked in, I couldn’t help but think, ‘did I miss something on the website about bringing chairs?’ I shrugged that thought off and we made our way to the right after stopping to look at the map.
We made our way through what I like to call the flower walk. When we were here during Christmas, it has lights across the top of the path, that looked like icicles. It looked magical and it totally set the mood for the whole trip.
In September, this garden walk was full of lush greenery and pretty leaves. We stopped in front of the large planters to grab a photo, I couldn’t get over how beautiful it all look and I couldn’t wait to see the rest of it.
As we walked along the path, the first Light exhibit we got to was called “Go Fishing” and the very beginning of “Field of Light”. As you can see from above, its still light out but it was so impressive to see this field filled with these glowing, color changing orbs.
After ooohing and ahhhing at this part, we made our way on the path North towards the Italian Water Gardens. We were not on the path directly next to it but after finding the path, we stumbled upon these brilliant fountains that looked like a scene out of Italy. It was truly beautiful!
Another magical and beautiful moment made by Longwood Gardens. We stopped to take in the Field of Light from across the Large Lake and sat to chat about what a beautiful night it is. We totally lucked out with the weather. We were both comfortable in longer pants and a short sleeved shirt. I didn’t need my sweater that I carried around. At this point, it was starting to get darker and we were able to really admire the Field of Light more now. It was vibrant and beautiful.
We wound ourselves around the Large lake and came back to the field of lights and I was thrilled to see them up close in the dark. I was shocked to see how seamlessly they changed colors right in front of my eyes.
After winding our way on some paths, we were pretty sure should have been closed, we found our way to the next exhibit “S.O.S.” These glowing cubes and the ever changing soundtrack made for a fun show. The colors changed as the music did and then out of nowhere S.O.S. in morse code would come on and the cubes would blink red and white. We think the the cubes were set up in a ying yang formation. It was really neat to walk through, especially when the colors and music were changing.
After being rescued after S.O.S. we saw lighted fountains and heard the music coming from the 30-minute fountain show at the Main Fountain Gardens. We wandered over and as we got closer, we realized that this is why people were bringing chairs- to sit and watch the fountain show. We made our way through the crowd to find a spot where we could see. It was really neat to see the fountains and how they were synchronized to the music. Back in December, we saw the “fountain” show which was really just light that was made to look like fountains. Both of these shows were really magical, think if the Bellagio and Disney World came together to put together a fountain show, this would be it.
After watching the fountains for a bit, we went on a mission to find the flamingos. There was one exhibit that I (and Penelope) were very curious to see. We thought we would find this in the Conservatory. When we entered, I saw a pink glowing light. I basically ran towards it thinking it was the flamingos. It was not; I was disappointed. What we did find was this beautiful sphere of pink bottles. This was the “Green Flash.” What we didn’t see (after watching a preview snippet, that this pink glowing sphere flashed green, hence why its called “Green Flash”)
After seeing this pink sphere, we saw another glowing light just past where we were. We walked into Exhibition Hall to see a sea of CDs in blues and greens. This exhibit, C-scales, was really unusual. It was set in a darken room and while you couldn’t get close to the CDs, you could take a seat in front of them to see the color wash over them. I am not sure if it was the colors or the darkness, but this was a very calming exhibit.
After C-Scales, we wandered by a room that was brightly lit and it drew me in immediately. Longwood Gardens had a flower show in the Ballroom and this room had all the winners in it. Not only were there flowers, but plants, table setting and other things that were really beautiful. I found these dahlias and I swear the next one was prettier as the last.
We flew though the conservatory, to try to find these silly flamingos. What we failed to see was the Time and Place exhibit in the Music Room, just off the Exhibition Hall. This exhibit after doing some digging, had photo taken in a 360 degree format of different locations at Longwood. This would have been interesting to see.
After leaving the Conservatory, we made our way towards the Main Fountain and we saw what was another exhibit. We made our way through the crowds still watching the fountain show. It was truly something to see! What we got to was what I thought looked like starbursts. They were so pretty! This was the “Time & Again” Exhibit. This was neat because you could walk all the way around it to see it from all angles.
At this point, I pulled up Longwood Garden’s Instagram page to confirm that there was a flamingos exhibit because I was starting to think I imagined this. HA! After finding the post, I walked right up to an employee and asked her where this exhibit was. She knew exactly what I was looking for and she directed us around the fountains and down the stair case to a more secluded area of the grounds.
YES! I was excited. We walked close to the Main Fountains and the feel of the mist from the water was refreshing. These fountains up close were larger than life! I took a look at the crowd and everyone was glued to them.
As we made our way past the fountains and down the stairs, I started to see a pink glow and I knew we finally found the right place. As we walked closer, we started to hear this squawking! I was so confused what that noise was and then I realized, it was the ‘flamingos’. HAHA NOW I get why they stuck them all the way out here.
We had made it to “Ranmandu’s Table” to see the 1,000 plastic flamingos in the pond. It was a quite a sight to see. Penelope was clearly very excited and this was her very favorite exhibit. She wanted to stay for the night to catch up with all of them but I told her we were going home. Clearly, she didn’t understand this wasn’t in New Jersey.
Phew! We saw 7 out of the 8 exhibit on display. To our credit, we had no idea about the 8th one and I think we saw the best ones out of it. On our way back towards to Main Fountains, we walked past this little alcove with arched doorways and greenery around it. I thought to myself “woah! That’s really pretty!” and continued to walk by. A few steps last I said “wait, go back!” So I told Kyle and we went back. I told him my vision and Viola! It turned out exactly what I thought.
It looks like I am not in Pennsylvania right?! I am so happy I listened to that little voice in my head.
We made our way towards the front and while we were doing that, everyone from the fountain show was also heading towards the exit. I thought to myself, ‘oh no! What if we have to wait forever for the bus to take us back to our car?!’ Well once we exited, right in front of us was the yellow school but with no line, waiting for us. We hopped on and there ended up being about 10 other people and once we got on, we were off.
It was a wonderfully long and crazy day. I loved this exhibit and I was so happy I got to share it with Kyle. We got back to our car and then we set out for home, 2 and a half hours away.
Thank you Longwood Gardens for having this exhibit, it was wonderful!
[[Life is full of surprises. Why is that always surprising? Cathleen Schine]]
