What’s in Bloom

This orchid was once more common in southeastern Pennsylvania, but has become rare due to habitat loss. Lady’s slipper orchids can be incredibly long-lived; the plants seen here were planted in the Garden in 1963.  The greater yellow lady’s slipper was the first species entered into Longwood’s plant conservation program.

Fringe-tree is native to the eastern and central United States. It has lacy, white, fragrant flowers in May and early June.  Growing only to 20 feet tall, fringe-tree is a great tree for small gardens or used as a woodland understory plant.  This fairly adaptable tree does well in full sun to partial shade, and has reliable yellow fall foliage.   

The brilliantly colored and slightly fragrant flowers appear as the leaves emerge in spring, making this one of the earliest native azaleas to bloom.  Our selections include plants with yellow, gold, and orange blooms, creating dramatic sweeps of color amongst the trees.  The flame azalea is tolerant of various conditions and is one of the easiest to grow in either sun or shade.

This deciduous tree native to China, produces large, fragrant, panicles of lavender flowers in the spring.  The wood of this fast growing tree is highly prized and used to make furniture and musical instruments. Japanese craftsmen prize princess-tree wood for making the koto, a six-foot long, stringed instrument that is the national instrument of Japan. Kotos create music when the strings that bridge across the hollow body of the instrument, are plucked. The unique sound is distinctively energetic and reflective because of the resonance of the princess-tree wood.

This wisteria, native to Japan, is highly prized for its very long, fragrant racemes of flowers in late spring. The flowers do not all open at once, but begin to open at the base of the raceme and open progressively to the tip. In the Wisteria Garden, the vigorous twining vines are grown on a heavy arbor and also trained into tiered tree forms supported by metal poles.