100 years old and still blossoming

Visitors will be treated to a year's worth of celebrations.
KENNETT SQUARE, Pa. (AP) -- Tall palm fronds reach through the balmy air toward the sunlight, just yards from fuzzy ferns dripping with humidity and an exotic fruit garden where kumquats grow in bright orange bursts.
Just another winter's day in Pennsylvania?
It is for visitors at Longwood Gardens, which is turning 100 this year.
And although the official anniversary isn't until July, visitors will be celebrating with every new bud that comes to bloom -- both indoors and out.
"The main theme for the centennial is layers," said Amy Shearer, a Longwood spokeswoman. "It's structured to give everyone the opportunity to enjoy the festivities many times throughout the year."
Plants
The first layer is the plant life itself. Longwood will host eight horticultural displays throughout the year, corresponding roughly with the different seasons of flora.
That way, even in winter and early spring, when most of the trees are still bare, visitors can enjoy the best the gardens have to offer.
A "Welcome Spring" display, running through April 7 and housed in Longwood's four acres of heated greenhouses, provides visitors all the midyear blossoms that the outside world will have to wait months to see.
Indeed, it's easy to forget the blustery weather outside when surrounded by the spring tulips, lilies, daffodils and, thankfully, spring temperatures, in the conservatories.
An ardor for arbors is what inspired industrialist Pierre S. du Pont to purchase an arboretum, 30 miles southwest of Philadelphia, that would later become Longwood Gardens. He bought it to save trees he knew were otherwise headed for the sawmill, and in the century since its purchase, du Pont's land has blossomed into a 1,050-acre expanse.
Longwood's 20 indoor and 20 outdoor gardens attract about 800,000 visitors a year.
Centennial events
Centennial events make up the second layer of celebrations -- from child-friendly family days in March to a day for seniors in early April.
During the clematis celebration in March, Raymond Evison, an authority on the flowers, will coax them to grow out of season, in trained baskets, up obelisks and around spiral frames.
For Mother's Day weekend, May 12-14, orchid vendors from throughout the United States and South America will arrive at Longwood for a judged orchid show and symposium. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Orchid Society will kick off the event by unveiling a ruffled flower with a light fragrance and a yellow center -- a new strain of cattleya orchid the society bred itself and will dub the "Alice B. du Pont," after Longwood's first lady.
Summer visitors won't want to miss the three-day Founder's Day festival from July 20-22, where concerts, fountain shows, a 1920s-style picnic and a ticketed fireworks show commemorate the actual date (July 20, 1906) of du Pont's purchase.
Art and educational exhibitions
Layer No. 3 comes in the form of artistic and educational exhibitions, starting with a "Longwood Through the Lens" photography show March 13 to April 16. The show features photos of the gardens taken over the past year by members of the Chester County Camera Club.
In conjunction with the orchid symposium, visitors to the gardens April 22-May 21 can view paintings and charcoal sketches of the flower in the "Orchids in Contemporary Art" exhibit.
With all the centennial novelties, guests shouldn't forget to stop and smell another attraction that comes in layers -- the conservatory's terraced rose garden, where bright yellow flowers stand proud above descending lines of reds, whites and pinks.
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