Longwood Gardens: a plant database
Photo courtesy of Longwood Gardens
Longwood Gardens, just across Maryland's border and into Pennsylvania, is a delightful garden destination. Now it is a destination on the web, too.
Longwood, about two hours from Baltimore in Kennett Square, Pa., has introduced a plant database which allows gardeners to search for plants, find out which plants are in bloom at Longwood at the moment, scout out garden tours for a future visit and find out more about particular garden features, such as the Acacia Passage, at Longwood.
I spent some time on the new Plant Explorer and my thought is, like most of these databases, you need to have a lot of information at your fingertips to narrow the search results. Otherwise, you might pull up a list of more than 100 plants through which to sort.
But if you know plant's scientific or common names, you are in better shape. Very often, there are excellent pictures of the plants - up close and in the garden - and plenty of information about bloom times and care.
The plant lists appear to be limited to those grown at Longwood, which is just fine for the Mid-Atlantic gardener. And Longwood grows, literally, hundreds and hundreds of varieties.
And the "Discover What's In Bloom" feature allows you to pull up a photographic list of what is blooming both indoors and outdoors at Longwood, in real time.
And the plant tour element allows you to see what is on staff recommended tours, or create a tour of your own that allows you to see just the plants you want to see.
