October 03, 2025
Damian Giletto/Delaware News Journal/USA TODAY NETWORK
Longwood Gardens' Chrysanthemum Festival will run from Oct. 25 to Nov. 16. Above, the 1,000 bloom plant is shown in 2023 during the festival at the botanical garden in Kennett Square, Chester County.
Longwood Gardens will bring back its autumn Chrysanthemum Festival later this month after skipping last year's display of the stunning "thousand bloom" plant and other varieties of fall's favorite flower.
The botanical preserve in Kennett Square said this year's festival will run from Oct. 24 to Nov. 16 with a new exhibit explaining the science behind growing and artfully shaping the colorful plant.
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The species is one of the few that naturally blooms during cooler fall months, but cultivating them for vibrant displays is a rigorous process that can take upwards of a year. Longwood Gardens took a break from last year's festival to devote more attention to the opening of its new West Conservatory and other exhibits from the $250 million Longwood Reimagined project.
During a December lecture for Longwood Gardens members, staff said the beloved 1,000 bloom chrysanthemum became a challenge in recent years due to difficulties with flowering. The exhibit in the Main Conservatory showcases a single plant with a thousand or more perfectly grown flowers, a process that took about 1,800 hours of labor in one recent year.
"This is really the most intensive horticultural effort that we engage in here at Longwood," Jim Harbage, the preserve's director of floriculture, says in a video explaining the complex method used to create the 1,000 bloom chrysanthemum.
In years past, Longwood Gardens has abandoned the festival's highlight — despite months of preparation — when the flowers fail to thrive due to root-borne pathogens and other complications.
The displays shown during the Chrysanthemum Festival rely on techniques that trace back more than 400 years to China and Japan, where some of Longwood Gardens' experts have traveled to study the art of growing the plants. This year's festival also will include mums shaped into a variety of forms such as baskets, spirals, columns and clouds. Past festivals also have featured chrysanthemum bonsai in rich fall colors.
Attendance at the Chrysanthemum Festival comes with a regular ticket for timed admission to Longwood Gardens. The renovations at the 1,100-acre attraction include the new West Conservatory with its Mediterranean garden, a new bonsai home, a revamped waterlily display and an upgraded overlook for fountain shows.
