My favorite public
garden is without a doubt Winterthur
located in
Delaware. My husband Richard and I began with a
tram tour
of
the estate. The tram driver was very friendly and
informative. He explained "pastural landscaping" which I had
never heard of before. It's basically planning a landscape to
make it look as if it was painted by a landscape artist.
One of the first things I noticed at Winterthur (pronounced Wint-ta-tour) was how the every single person working at the estate really loved doing so and took personal pride in it's beauty.
I
fell in love with this enchanting place. I saw
hills covered with naturalized daffodils and large drifts of Virginia
Bluebells. Huge flowering trees had petals on the ground so
thick
it looked like soft pink snow. The quince bushes were in full
bloom in an amazing array of colors. A small pond with a
waterfall completely captivated me. On the pond's banks,
sunning itself, was the largest frog
I
have ever seen. Witch hazel, bellworts,
epimedium and
spring beauties were all in their peak.
We
followed "fairy signs" to discover the
"Enchanted
Woods"
where a nest 12 feet wide had been made with large
branches. It was taller than me so I was unable to see
inside. A wonderful treehouse made from an old tulip poplar
tree
trunk looked as if elves would come busting out at any
moment. A
troll bridge protecting the roots of two very old tulip trees, a small
broken down stone house and a labyrinth with carved stones made me want
to be six years old again.
We decided to take
a home tour and that 
did it for
me. If I could chose any estate to move into ... Winterthur
would
be mine. A wonderful sun room filled with blooming orchids,
amazing antiques, great architectural features and those magnificent
gardens was more than I could even imagine. I wanted to stay
forever.
Since I wasn't going to be invited to move in though, we stuck to our plans and headed to Longwood Gardens, which was just a hop, skip and jump away...
 Bellwort
|
 Enchanted Woods Nest
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 Troutlily
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 Cherry tree in Bloom
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