Del & Dawg at Longwood Gardens

Thom,

My folks moved to Kendal which is the property adjoining Longwood to the east on Rt. 1. (They sold their place off Kentmere Pkwy).

There a 50/50 chance the kiddo will be matriculating next fall at Washington College in Chestertown. If so, there's chance this date might coincide with her moving east, orientation etc.

My Mom loves the Dawg, so this is great.

Just checked and Chick and Bela are there the week before.

She volunteers there in the back greenhouses. She's a keeper!

Just saw Grisman Saturday at the Broward Jewish Federation Theater.

It was called David Grisman strictly bluegrass experience. He is surrounded by some fantastic talent. He took you on a bluegrass history class from 1880's to the 1960's. One band he talked about stuck in my mind and made me laugh was "The Skillet Lickers"

Small couple of hundred seats. Show was fantastic. Good times at the Jewish center. He has a couple of other dates in the next few months. If you have a chance go to the show.

Wow!  I make a point of visiting botanical gardens wherever I travel, and our visit to Longwood was definitely one of the best! 

Huge huge yuge lily pads, the kind that a small child might be able to stand on. 

Didn't know that they hold concerts there, super cool!

There's six cats that live inside the conservatory. Here's one we saw on our visit last month.

What a cool place to see a show.   Have fun.  Dawg never disappoints.

Longwood Gardens:

Today the 1,077- acre Longwood Gardens consists of varied outdoor gardens, ranging from formal to naturalistic in their landscape design, and 20 indoor gardens within a 4.5 acre (1.8 hectares) group of heated greenhouses. Longwood’s Conservatory contains 4,600 different types of plants and trees, as well as fountains.[10] The Gardens also has extensive educational programs including a tuition-free two-year school of professional horticulture, a graduate program, and extensive internships.[11] It hosts hundreds of horticultural and performing arts events each year, from flower shows, gardening demonstrations, courses, and children's programs to concerts, organ and carillon recitals, musical theatre, fountain shows, and fireworks displays. It also hosts an extensive Christmas light display during the holiday season.

Longwood Gardens has a long and varied history. For thousands of years, the native Lenni Lenape tribe fished its streams, hunted its forests, and planted its fields. Evidence of the tribe's existence is found in quartz spear points that have been discovered on and around the property and can be found on display in the Peirce-du Pont House on the Longwood Gardens property.[3]

In 1700, a Quaker farmer named George Peirce purchased 402 acres of this English-claimed land from William Penn’s commissioners. George’s son Joshua cleared and farmed the land and in 1730 he built the brick farmhouse that, enlarged, still stands today.[4] In 1798, Joshua’s twin grandsons Samuel and Joshua, who had inherited the farm, actively pursued an interest in natural history and began planting an arboretum that eventually covered 15 acres. The collection included specimens that they collected from the wild as well as plants acquired from some of the region’s leading botanists.[5]

By 1850, the arboretum boasted one of the finest collections of trees in the nation and had become a place for the locals to gather outdoors – a new concept that was sweeping America at the time. Community picnics and socials were held at Peirce's Park in the mid to late 19th century.[6]

As the 19th century rolled into the 20th, the family’s heirs lost interest in the property and allowed the arboretum to deteriorate. The farm passed out of the family through several hands in quick succession, and a lumber mill operator was about to cut down the trees for timber in early 1906.[7] This threat moved Pierre S. du Pont, American entrepreneur, businessman, philanthropist, and member of the prominent du Pont family to take action. On July 20, 1906, 36-year-old du Pont purchased the farm primarily to preserve the trees. He wasn’t planning to create Longwood Gardens, but within a few years, his desire to make it a place where he could entertain his friends transformed a simple country farm into one of the country’s leading horticultural display gardens.[8]

When Pierre du Pont died in 1954, he "had in place a well-funded yet adaptable mechanism for Longwood to continue."[9]

Here's a picture of David at his unannounced sit-on with the Del McCoury Band at their December show at Seattle's Triple Door.  Dave has put on a few pounds.  He used to be so rail thin.  Still sounds great.  It was funny to see him up there in his cargo pants and Guat shirt with Del and the boys all dressed to the nines.