Articles
PEOPLE ARE INSPIRED BY DISPLAY GARDENS
Because of his special interest in nature and the environment, we felt a donation to Longwood Gardens in his memory would be most appropriate."
Last winter a local architect brought his mother to see our conservatory displays during a blizzard.
Upon entering the magnificent setting in her wheelchair, she ecstatically remarked, "The world has been up-lifted for me."
Lecorbusier, the French architect defined space as the "eye that sees, the foot that walks and the mind that remembers." Our elderly lady visitor certainly experienced esthetic feelings which she will long describe to her friends.
She will remember even longer what her eye saw during her walk through this exhilarating conservatory space.
Our founder and benefactor, Mr.
Pierre Samuel du Pont left his entire residual estate, as well as a sizable trust to the perpetuation and improvement of Longwood Gardens which his will describes as "A horticultural display for the benefit, enjoyment and instruction of all visitors." He, as one of America’s most prominent industrialists and businessmen, must have had an insight into the true value of beautiful plants, flowers and horticultural display far exceeding that of many of his contemporaries.
His wife, too, had an inner feeling about this as well.
For a number of years Mr. du Pont presented her, at each Christmas time, with a beautiful new string of pearls.
After several years she remarked, "Pierre, next year, instead of giving me another set of pearls, why not plant trees along the road between here and Wilmington" (Delaware, a distance of 13 miles), to which Pierre responded favorably.
Subsequently, those elm trees, as they grew to stately stature, became known as "Mrs. du Pont’s string of pearls."
What do displays of flowers, horticultural exhibits and working with living plants do to the human emotions to inspire one toward a better living or a better life style? A friend of mine related the experiences of a doctor in New Jersey who, as a medical student at the University of Pennsylvania, told her that whenever his studies depressed him to a point where he felt he could no longer continue with his medical training, he would drive the 30 miles to Longwood Gardens and spend several hours there to regain a spiritual and mental uplift from the displays