Longwood Gardens

Saturday was spent at Longwood Gardens. I thought I was only here once, sometime back in the 1990's, but it looked too familiar to remember that far back. I am sure I've been here in the last 5-10 years.

Pierre du Pont purchased this property in 1906. The property originally belonged to William Penn, who sold it to a fellow Quaker, George Pierce, in 1700. It stayed in the Pierce family and was called Pierce's Park until Dupont purchased it.

Pierre du Pont had a love and facination with water and fountains since he was a child, so the very first garden that he had built was The Italian Water Garden. The Indoor Children's Garden inside the main Conservatory opened in 2007 in appreciation of du Pont's childhood love of water and fountains.

I wish I knew the names of all of the flowers. Alas, I am nowhere near a horticulturalist or botanist, so you just get to look at all the pretty pictures.

Wanamaker

After the flower show, we had a tour of Wanamaker's Department Store (now Macy's) and a behind-the-scenes tour of the repair shop for the Wanamaker organ. The organ was originally built in 1904 for the St. Louis World's Fair. It had more than 10,000 pipes. In 1909, John Wanamaker bought the organ and had it installed in his department store. It was first heard on June 22, 1911, at the exact moment when England's King George V was crowned at Westminster Abbey. 8,000 more pipes were added between 1911 and 1917, then from 1924 to 1930, another 10,000 pipes were installed.

The total number of installed pipes today is 28,482. The gold pipes that you see on the 3rd floor are not functional; they are only decorational. All the other pipes are behind the walls from the 3rd to the 7th floors. The pipes range in size from those of a drinking straw to over 32 feet in length with wood made 3" thick.

The organ is played daily with some days having two performances. Each performance is about an hour long.

Philadelphia Flower Show

Well, wasn't this fun. My first attempt at adding a slideshow to my blog. If you click on the slideshow, it will bring you to my Picassa site where you can view the photos in full screen and slow down the slide presentation. You will also be able to read the captions, which don't show up here. Ah, never mind. I figured it out. You need to click the little "comments" button on the bottom left side of the slide show. It's the one that looks like a little white message box. If you hold your mouse over the bottom edge of the slideshow, you'll be able to pause, fast-forward, or go backward by hitting the appropriate buttons.

This is the Philadelphia Flower Show. It is the largest indoor show in the world. The only larger show is in England and that is only larger because it is both indoor and outdoor. The first Philadelphia Flower Show was in 1820 and has been continuously showing every year since then. The theme this year was "Hawaii." There were many, many, many, many orchids on display.