Longwood Gardens opens its new East Conservatory Plaza thie weekend — October 9th — with the first terraced lawn in the US designed by British landscape architect Kim Wilkie — and the largest green wall in North America.
Longwood Director Paul Redman says the design is "deeply rooted in tradition, while also embracing innovative landscape design." He added that the plaza is to serve as a place for quiet contemplation and a site where visitors can experience creative new programs.
The green wall covers an area of 3590 square feet — twice as large as the green wall at PNC Bank in Pittsburgh — and it supports more than 47,000 plants, most of them ferns. They include holly, rabbit's foot and button ferns as well as maidenhair and asparagus ferns.
The terraced plaza is composed of five tiers covered with grass in a sweeping form. Landscape architect Wilkie says the main idea was to create "a gentle environment of light and shade that would be transformed by the changing hours of the day, a place where people could relax in the morning sunshine, enjoy views out onto the rest of the gardens, take in a special event, or perhaps even attend a sparkling party at night."
The plaza is grounded in the surrounding woodland landscape, which includes a 200-year-old English yew, red maples, sweetgum, bald cypress and tulip trees, as well as southern bush honeysuckle, Virginia sweetspire, and other shrubs.
Well worth a visit to Pennsylvania.
(drawings: courtesy Longwood Gardens)
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