APRIL 19, 2018

WINTERTHUR TOUR

Location:     5105 Kennett Pike (Route 52)

Winterthur, DE  19735

Program:  Today we are going to tour the Winterthur garden.  They are located on 1,000 acres of rolling hills, streams, meadows, and forests.  Founder Henry Francis du Pont (1880-1969) developed an appreciated of nature as a boy that served as the basis for his life’s work in the garden.  He selected the choicest plants from around the world to enhance the natural setting, arranging them in lyrical color combinations and carefully orchestrating a succession of bloom from late January to November.

A tram with a narrator will be available for us to view the Azalea Woods, Magnolia Bend, and Enchanted Woods.  We will also have the opportunity to stroll the gardens after the 30 minute tram ride.

White and pink magnolias and pink cherries are in full bloom along with native dogwoods and redbuds ready to pop. Virginia bluebells, lavender and white Italian windflowers, yellow forsythia, and lavender rhododendrons are found blooming throughout the garden.

At the March Bank, we’ll be able to find early spring wildflowers such as yellow bellwort, and cutler toothwort. The Azalea Woods are filled with white trilliums, mayapples, and yellow primroses.

In April we will be able to see the Sundial Garden with blooming shrubs such as white spirea, flowering quince and early lilacs.

We will see the deep pink crabapple at the edge of the Pinetum with a beautiful drift of pale blue starflower nearby. The Pinetum has flowering quince in shades of pink, red and white. There are spectacular drifts of daffodils along the Front Drive and also at Magnolia Bend and Sycamore Hill.