Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve

Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve is a living museum specifically devoted to native plants. With a variety of diverse habitats, from mature hardwood forests to meadows, ponds, creeks, and steep hillsides, the preserve is home to more than 700 of Pennsylvania’s 2,000 native plants. These plants grow naturally in interdependent communities with resident insects, frogs, birds, and other wildlife.

Thanks to the efforts of two early conservationists—Mary K. Parry, chairman of the Bucks County Federation of Women’s Clubs, and W. Wilson Heinitsh, a consultant for Washington Crossing Historic Park—100 acres were set aside in 1934 as a memorial to George Washington’s encampment and a sanctuary for native plants. In the 1940s, under the leadership of Edgar T. Wherry, botany professor at the University of Pennsylvania, hundreds of native trees, shrubs, and wildflowers were planted on the site. His meticulous plant records set the stage for the preserve to become a horticultural institution.

Today, Bowman’s Hill offers 4.5 miles of trails winding through forests and meadows. The woodlands are spectacular in spring, when large swaths of ephemerals burst into bloom. Spring ephemerals are native wildflowers that blossom before the trees leaf out, set seed, and often disappear completely underground during the summer months. In April you will find a sea of Virginia bluebells, carpets of trilliums, hepaticas, bloodroot, and Dutchman’s breeches, followed by mayapples, twinleaf, and crested iris. The ponds and streams are fringed with bright yellow marsh marigolds. With the spring blooms of redbuds, dogwoods, fringe trees, and azaleas, the effect is magical.

In the summer mountain laurels, swamp azaleas, and rosebay rhododendrons bloom in the woodlands, while bee balms, milkweeds, coneflowers, and penstemons fill the meadows with their colorful flowers. Fall brings out asters and goldenrods and brilliant foliage in shades of gold, orange, and red.

Bowman’s Hill is also a haven for birdwatchers. More than 110 species of birds can been seen at the preserve in the course of a year, due to the bounty of seeds, insects, and nesting spots, and the preserve’s location on the Atlantic flyway. Guided bird walks are available on a regular basis. 

If you want to enhance the biodiversity of your own garden, you can purchase native plants at the preserve’s onsite nursery. More than 200 species of wildflowers, vines, ferns, shrubs, and trees are offered for sale throughout the growing season. These plants are propagated and grown on the preserve and represent local germplasm grown without harsh chemicals such as neonicotinoids. Locally propagated plants also are quickest to establish in your home garden. In addition to a staff of knowledgeable gardeners, the nursery offers free resources and plant recommendations for your specific growing conditions.

Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve, 1635 River Rd., New Hope, PA, 215-862-2924 bhwp.org

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Pura Vida in Costa Rica

My January tour of Costa Rica’s tropical gardens and landscapes was an amazing experience. Our group of 12 travelers from various corners of the US, along with our local guide, Jose, and driver Danny, enjoyed wonderful camaraderie, stunning views, varied terrain, beautiful flowers and delicious cuisine in a week-long exploration of this Central American haven. 

Day 1

Our first stop on the Costa Rica Garden Tour was the stunning private garden of Senora Ileana Terán in Turrialba. Senora Terán began her garden 60 years ago as a new bride on the coffee plantation. Located on a mountain side, this terraced garden features collections of bromeliads, tropical foliage plants, miniatures, and a large collection of orchids. The plants are beautifully displayed and accented with native stone and ancient vessels. Senora Terán toured us around her garden, and shared her stories, her considerable knowledge of horticulture, and refreshments in her amazing home. 

After lunch we continued on to Cartago, one of the seven provinces of Costa Rica, and its capital in colonial times. Here we toured the Sólo Rosas Rose Garden, where more than 500 varieties of roses are grown for the floral industry as well as for the pleasure of visitors. The owner has collected roses from all over the world, particularly England, France and Germany. The roses are grown organically in an enclosed environment and reach amazing sizes. As you stroll through the garden, you enjoy the sounds of classical music, the array of lovely colors, and the beautiful scents of the gorgeous flowers.

Day 2

We stayed for two nights in Villa Florencia, a small family hotel surrounded by sugarcane plantations and tropical forests. We woke up to the songs of tropical birds and the sight of dozens of Montezuma Oropendolas building their hanging nests in a huge tree in the hotel courtyard. On the way to breakfast, we were greeted by a sloth lounging in a tall tree. Our hotel building was shaded by two towering monkey puzzle trees, and blooming hibiscus adorned the grounds. A kidney-shaped pool beckoned for an early evening swim.

resident sloth, photographed by our guide Jose Saenz

The second day began with a visit of Hacienda Sitio de Mata, a historic sugar plantation with stunning views. Our tour guided greeted us with a refreshing drink called Agua de Sapo, made with brown sugar, lemon and fresh ginger. We learned about the traditional ways of growing, harvesting, and processing sugar cane in an interactive demonstration with two oxen and cooking over an open fire. Throughout the tour, we tasted sugar cane in many different forms - from raw cane to a “fudge” made for plantation children, and the final brown sugar product. The Hacienda is also home to a colonial church from 1850, a pond filled with lotuses, a shrub maze, and a plank house built in 1750 on the slopes of the Irazú volcano. Our visit included a delicious Costa Rican lunch and coffee grown on the plantation.

In the afternoon we continued to the Tropical Agronomy Center for Research and Learning (CATIE), and enjoyed a guided tour of their botanical gardens. The Botanical Garden of CATIE is a special place. There are exotic trees from around the world, collections of gingers and heliconias, robust stands of bamboo and a medicinal plant garden. The research at CATIE focuses on coffee and tropical fruits among other things, and the grounds include 2,000 varieties of coffee plants, and more than 500 varieties of tropical fruits. The garden serves as a laboratory for students and scientists investigating the molecular and morphological characteristics of the conserved species. It is also an educational site focused on environmental conservation and the sustainable use and protection of natural resources. We were able to sample some of the many tropical fruits that are displayed daily for visitors.

Day 3

Our first stop was at the Lankester Botanical Garden,  a beautiful 27-acre property with more than 3,000 species of plants. Here, rare trees and flowers are displayed in a Bromeliad Garden, Japanese Garden, Cactus and Succulent Garden and water gardens. Lankester focuses on the  conservation and research of tropical epiphytic plants, particularly orchids. Hundreds of orchids were on display both in the ground (terrestrial orchids) and in containers.

Driving through the city of Cartago in light rain, we decided to make a spontaneous stop at the historic Ruins of Cartago. The site was home to several churches, the oldest of which was built in the mid-16th century. The original church was destroyed by an earthquake in 1630 and earthquakes continued to plague the location for centuries. Each time the church was rebuilt, only to be leveled by a tornado or earthquake several decades later. In 1910, the infamous and catastrophic Santa Monica earthquake permanently cancelled plans of a church on the site. The remaining ruins now frame a beautiful garden with a walking paths, benches, ponds and flowers.

ruins of cartago

Cloud forest in talamanca mountains

Our final destination for the day was the Savegre Hotel Natural Reserve and Spa. This family-owned hotel is located on 1,200 acres of nature preserves and cloud forests in the Talamanca Mountains. At an altitude of 2,400 ft, it features miles of hiking trails, colorful trees and flowers, and 170 species of birds. A steep, narrow road with a series of sharp switchbacks brought us to our destination. The hotel is located on the banks of the Savegre River, one of the cleanest rivers in Central America. The property is dotted with cabins set in lush gardens of hibiscus, clivias, agapanthus and apricot brugmansias. We say many varieties of hummingbirds flying from flower to flower, and gathering at feeders. The hotel is popular with birdwatchers from all over the world, and on the way to breakfast, I saw a group with giant cameras on tripods pointed at a tree with the brilliant green Quetzal. A Chinese couple offered me an up-close look through their 2-foot long camera lens.

quetzal by jose saenz

Day 4

Day 4 began with a tour of Coopedota Coffee Plantation in Dota, one of the  highest-ranking coffee production areas in the world! The Coopedota Coffee Plantation is a farm and  processing cooperative where local farmers take their coffee beans to be washed, dried, and prepared for shipping. Our tour included the growing fields, where we learned about coffee cultivation and tasted coffee berries in all stages of processing. Coffee is a prized agricultural product in Costa Rica, and the berries are harvested manually. The farm focuses on environmentally friendly techniques and artisinal coffees. We were able to sample their coffee with lunch, and purchase beans to bring home.

From the Coffee Plantation we drove to the Pacific coast. Hotel San Bada is a contemporary hotel located next to the entrance to Manuel Antonio National Park and the beaches of Quepos. The hotel has a full restaurant and roof-top sushi bar with stunning views of the ocean and two swimming pools. Our rooms included balconies with sliding doors, which we were warned to keep locked to keep out the clever monkeys that live in the surrounding trees. The weather on the west coast was dramatically different than our previous few days—in the mid-80s and humid, perfect for the pools and the beach.

view from the hotel rooftop

Day 5

Our morning began with a Rainforest Spices Farm Tour. Villa Vanilla Spice Plantation is located in the Central Pacific rain forest. Spanning over 27 acres of agriculture production and 125 acres of rainforest, the plantation produces vanilla, as well as true Ceylon cinnamon, cocoa, black pepper, allspice, turmeric, and a variety of exotic fruits, essential oils, and medicinal plants. Our tour guide welcomed us with a refreshing iced tea made of hibiscus, clove, cinnamon and allspice. We first learned about the laborious process of growing, hand-pollinating, hand-harvesting and drying vanilla pods, which grow on a species of orchid called Vanilla planifollia. During the tour, we learned about the cultivation and production of spices grown on the farm, saw many beautiful tropical flowers, and sampled cocoa, cookies, and three types of ice cream enhanced with vanilla and spices.

vanilla pods drying in the sun

In the afternoon, some of us went to the town beach where we saw capuchin monkeys cavorting in the trees and stealing trash from barrels. More monkeys devoured the fruits of palms at our hotel.

Day 6

This day focused on Manuel Antonio National Park, which was located next to our hotel. This is a very popular tourist destination, and there were many groups with guides pointing out the plants and wildlife. Manuel Antonio National Park is one of the most bio-diverse areas in the world, with rain forests, beaches, and gorgeous coral reefs. It is a mecca for birdwatchers, with more than 350 bird species including toucans and emerald amazon kingfishers. During our park visit, we saw iguanas, sloths, lizards, butterflies, capuchin monkeys, brightly-colored crabs and tropical vegetation. The walk brought us to a pristine beach in a small cove where we enjoyed a long swim in the warm, crystal clear ocean water.

In the afternoon we toured the Quepos farmers market where local farmers sold gorgeous fruits, vegetables, crafts, and jewelry, amidst a festive atmosphere of music and dancing. We then headed to a ranch in the small town of Londres, where we had a cooking demonstration and participated in the preparation of a true farm-to-table Costa Rican dinner of plantain ceviche, braised chicken, rice, beans, and corn tortillas made with fresh ingredients and local flavors.

Day 7

As we made our way inland from the Pacific coast, we stopped to learn all about chocolate at Cacao Santo. The founders of this small plantation were originally missionaries, and focused on the spiritual and religious history of chocolate in the culture of Central American indigenous peoples. Cacao is a fruit that grows on understory trees. Its use dates back to Ecuador, some 5,000 years ago. We toured the home farm, tasted the cacao fruit, and then helped to shell and grind dried cocoa beans on a metase and an old-fashioned hand-crank grinder. We then sampled cocoa made from our our ground cacao beans, observing toucans, tanagers, and Montezuma birds in the garden.

Our final botanical garden was the Green Ark in Santa Barbara de Heredia. The Green Ark is a foundation and public garden that focuses on the many uses of plants in our daily lives. Plants from all over the world are displayed on terraces that feature a medicinal garden, a culinary garden, a tropical food garden, an essential oils garden, and a natural colorants garden. After a gourmet lunch prepared with fresh herbs and produce from the garden, Green Ark’s founder, a fascinating gentleman originally from Arkansas, took us on an educational tour of the grounds. 

We ended our tour with a final night and Farewell Dinner at Hotel Bougainvillea. Located in a suburb just 10 minutes from downtown San José,  Hotel Bougainvillea is a boutique hotel decorated with original artwork, stained glass, minerals, and artifacts. The hotel is nestled within a 1-acre award-winning tropical botanical garden with meandering paths, seating areas, sculpture, specimen trees, and flowers that attract birds and butterflies.

Perhaps no other country has a motto so charming, so universally quoted and so life-affirming as pura vida. It’s Costa Rica’s unofficial national slogan, and you hear it everywhere. You can say pura vida to mean “thank you,” “you’re welcome,” “that’s great” or “life is good.” The literal meaning of pura vida is “pure life,” but it’s come to symbolize the cheerful outlook and simple lifestyle of what is often called the happiest country in the world.

We all returned from our trip to Costa Rica with that feeling of pura vida, with wonderful memories, new friendships and thousands of photos! Join me on a Costa Rica adventure in January 2026!

Gardens Under Glass

January and February are the toughest months for gardeners with snow, ice and bitter, cold winds making forays into the garden unpleasant. An afternoon spent in a warm, lushly planted greenhouse is a welcome respite from our Northeast winter. So call one of your gardening friends and make a date to visit one of our local gardens under glass.

courtesy of wellesley college

Wellesley College Global Flora Conservatory

The Global Flora conservatory at Wellesley College is a part of the Wellesley College Botanic Garden. This new conservatory was built in 2019, and houses plants from every continent except Antarctica. Global Flora includes three sections: the Camellia Pavilion, the Dry Biome, which includes plants adapted to desert and dry climates around the world, and the Wet Biome, for plants from subtropical humid regions. (wellesley.edu/about-us/offices-departments/wellesley-college-botanic-gardens)

Roger Williams Park Botanical Center

The Botanical Center opened in 2007, and at 12,000 square feet is the largest public indoor display garden in New England. It includes two main greenhouses: The Conservatory and the Mediterranean Room. The Conservatory has the feeling of a large courtyard surrounded by elegant tall palms. A fountain bubbles and colorful tropical plants bloom beneath stately trees. Immense birds of paradise hide among the palms, like storks in the jungle. The Mediterranean Room is built around a long stucco wall with a circular gate. A densely planted pond with giant koi dominates the room. A small waterfall and a Mediterranean fountain provide soothing background music. All in all, there are over 150 different species and cultivars of plants including 17 types of palms. (providenceri.gov/botanical-center)

Lyman Conservatory at Smith College

The Lyman Conservatory at Smith College houses over 3,000 species of tropical, subtropical, and desert plants in Lord & Burnham greenhouses. A Camellia Corridor leads to the Palm House where a titan arum opens its gigantic flower every three to five years. The Fern House features a Wardian case and New Zealand tree ferns towering above dozens of fern species. Carnivorous plants bask in the Warm Temperate House. Many varieties of orchids share the Stove House with water lilies, papyrus, sugar cane, and bromeliads. The Spring Bulb Show is a delight in March. (garden.smith.edu)

Briggs Garden and Home

Briggs Garden and Home is a family-owned and operated nursery dating to 1961, when the business began as a landscape design and build company. Today the nursery has one of the largest greenhouses in the area, stocked with tropicals, citrus trees, herbs, and baskets overflowing with gorgeous annuals. The retail store is beautifully designed and staged, with a huge selection of garden necessities, ornaments and accessories. There are candles, glass balls, ceramic fish, birdhouses, and elegant glass containers for the terrariums. A charming café allows you to linger over a cappuccino or fruit smoothie and indulge in a sandwich or pastry. (briggsgarden.com)

New England Botanic Garden

New England Botanic Garden’s Orangerie and Limonaia conservatories showcase beautiful collections of subtropical plants, camellias, and citrus trees. The Orangerie is a charming 18th century style greenhouse with potted plants arranged in artful combinations of complementary foliage color, texture and bloom. Statuary, seating nooks, fountains with trickling water and the scents of many blossoms add to its magical charm. The Limonaia – Italian for “Lemon House” – features lemon trees with fruits in many forms and colors, from the school-bus yellow Meyer lemons to the soft-ball sized Ponderosas. Mingling with the lemon trees are camellias, ferns, bougainvillea and forced narcissus. It’s a feast for the senses. (nebg.org)

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

The exquisite courtyard garden of Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum complements the architecture and artwork of this grand historic mansion. Known for its spring nasturtium display, this indoor city garden is a haven in all seasons. From January to February, masses of tropical plants fill the courtyard with many of shades of green, complemented by clouds of white blossoms on mature jade plants. Norfolk Island pines, tree ferns, begonias and a variety of palms create a green tapestry, while orange and yellow bromeliads, striped Draceaena and colorful crotons provide splashes of color. In late February through March, the courtyard overflows with weeping yellow jasmines and dozens of orchids: lady’s slippers, Moth Orchids, Cattleya, Oncidius, and Cymbidiums. (www.gardnermuseum.org)

Lyman Estate

Orchid and camellia lovers should also visit the Lyman Estate in Waltham, which features one of the oldest surviving greenhouse complexes in the country.  A grape house dates back to 1804, a camellia house to 1820, and an orchid house to 1840. The 100 year-old camellia trees are the stars of the Lyman Estate. Related to Camellia sinensis, which is the plant that tea comes from, Camellia japonica is a small ornamental tree valued for its beautiful, rose-like flowers. There are more than 2,000 varieties of Camellia japonica in existence, with colors ranging from white to pale pink to red, and blossoms that may be striped or speckled, and single or double in form. Visit the Lyman Estate and celebrate their camellia blooming season from early February to early March. (www.historicnewengland.org)

Logee’s Greenhouses

A listing of gardens under glass would not be complete without mentioning Logee’s Greenhouses, a destination greenhouse for avid gardeners in Danielson, Conn. In 1900, founder William D. Logee bought a small Ponderosa Lemon tree from a grower in Philadelphia. It was know as the “American Wonder Lemon” because the fruit could get as large as five pounds. Planted in the original greenhouse on the property, the same tree still stands today and is reliably producing five-pound lemons every year. Thousands of lemon trees have been propagated from this original plant. Logee's Greenhouses is renowned for its collection of tropical and exotic plants including a large selection of passion flowers, Angel’s Trumpets, orchids, begonias, jasmines, and of course, citrus trees. (www.logees.com)

New York Botanical Garden

The New York Botanical Garden is a destination year-round. Its Lord & Burnham Conservatory is a remarkable example of Victorian-style glasshouse artistry. It is home to lush tropical rain forests, cactus-filled deserts, orchids, palms, aquatic and carnivorous plants, and seasonal displays. Of special note is the annual Orchid Show, which begins in March. Designed with a different theme each year, it features thousands of gorgeous orchids in unique displays. (nybg.org)

Longwood Gardens

The indoor garden spaces at Longwood Gardens cover more than 10 acre of amazing displays throughout the seasons. The Historic Main Conservatory is a place of perpetual bloom and elegant beauty. Stroll past green lawns, mature trees and sunken pools, surrounded by lush floral displays and massive hanging baskets of flowers. There is a whimsical indoor children’s garden, an Orchid House, a historic ballroom and organ room. The new Longwood Reimagined complex features the Roberto Marx Burle Cascade Garden and the modern West Conservatory with its Mediterranean-inspired landscape. (longwoodgardens.org/gardens)

Hershey Gardens

The Hershey Gardens Butterfly Atrium in the conservatory is a year-round attraction, with hundreds of North American and tropical butterflies fluttering through a tropical oasis. Palm trees, ti plants, hibiscus, and even the cacao tree that is used to make chocolate create a beautiful setting for leopard lacewings, Great Mormons, blue morphos, and many other butterflies and moths. A large Chrysalis Cabinet illustrates the butterfly lifecycle from egg to caterpillar, pupa, and adult. (hersheygardens.org)

A visit to one of these wonderful greenhouses will lift your spirits, fuel your creativity and make the winter seem a little shorter.

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Disney World's Whimsical Gardens

Beyond its rides, characters and attractions, Walt Disney World is one of the largest gardens in the world with more than 40 square miles of plant displays. Walt Disney alway considered landscaping as an integral element of the park. When planning Disneyland in California, he traveled to Europe several times and brought home notebooks filled with inspiration and gardening techniques. He was particularly impressed with Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens, and wanted his own parks to overflow with beautiful flowers and color. As a result, floriculture and horticulture have been big features at each of the Disney parks.

To build Walt Disney World, Walt acquired 27,000 acres of mostly swampland and scrub forest in Orlando. The site needed massive improvement before the resort could be built. Thousands of workers moved 8 million cubic yards of soil and built 55 miles of levees and canals to create a blank slate for the design of the landscape. 

Each park’s landscape design and accompanying plants serve many purposes and have many distinctive styles. Some, such as Victoria Gardens at Canada in Epcot’s World Showcase, are attractions in their own rights. Most of the gardens function as beautiful set designs, enhancing the theme of each park with their selection of plants, color, layout and accessories. Each park has a style that is carefully orchestrated–whether it is the turn-of-the-century, small-town America style of Main Street USA in The Magic Kingdom, or the relaxed vibe and tropical, lush plantings of Typhoon Lagoon. Much of Animal Kingdom evokes the landscapes Asia, with plants and cultural elements from India, Tibet, Thailand and many other countries. 

Nowhere are the landscapes more varied than at Epcot, where each of the pavilions in the World Showcase features plants and designs that reflect its country of origin. Whenever possible, plants native to each country are used, whether it is olive trees in Italy, or Japanese maples in Japan. The landscape design and architectural features truly make you feel like you have stepped into another country—whether it is the Shakespeare parterre with a bust of the poet in Britain; or a pond encircled with bamboo and panda topiaries in China; or Future World’s sweeping geometric beds of brightly colored flowers that underscore the contemporary style of Spaceship Earth.

Many of the plantings have practical purposes as well. Tall trees provide a shady respite from the sun, and groupings of plants screen unwanted views and distractions. Islands of plantings direct traffic throughout the park, and provide privacy and cozy enclosures for dining and relaxation.

When you look at Disney World’s statistics, the size of the operation becomes evident. Between 700 and 800 horticultural professionals tend 3.5 million bedding plants, herbs and vegetables, and care for the 175,000 trees, 4 million shrubs, 13,000 rose bushes, and 800 hanging baskets. They create more than 200 pieces of topiary, from traditionally sculpted hedges to fanciful three-dimensional Disney characters. The plants come from about 50 countries and every continent except Antarctica. 

The work of the horticultural team goes far beyond the creation of the beautiful landscapes. The team also grows food for the guests in The Land Pavilion, testing new techniques and growing a whopping 30 tons of fruits, vegetables and herbs that are served in Disney World restaurants and donated to local food banks. They also select and tend plants for the animals at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and make sure that the horticulture in these locations is edible, safe and palatable for the animals living there. With 2,000 acres of grass that needs to be pristine at all times, there are staff members dedicated to mowing and fertilizing these extensive lawns. Disney World horticulturists also partner with The University of Florida to explore new techniques in horticulture and conservation for responsible stewardship of the landscape.

An excellent time for visit Disney World is during the annual Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival, which typically runs from March through May. The three-month spectacle features additional gardens and topiaries, outdoor kitchens with special foods, and talks and activities centered around home gardening. Epcot also features the Living with the Land attraction, a gentle boat tour through multimedia agricultural displays and the four working greenhouse of The Land Pavilion. You can also take the Behind the Seeds Tour here to discover the Disney’s innovative gardening techniques.

For more Florida gardens to visit, see The Garden Tourist’s Florida: 80 Tropical Gardens in the Sunshine State.

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Poetry, Garden and Art at the Hill-Stead Museum

In addition to wonderful botanic gardens, New England is rich with historic estates and their beautiful gardens. If you are traveling through Connecticut on Rte. 84, you can visit one such estate located west of Hartford - Hill-Stead Museum in Farmington. Hill-Stead offers a unique glimpse into the lifestyle of a well-to-do family at the turn of the 20th century. Set on 152 acres, the estate houses a fabulous art collection including Impressionist paintings by Mary Cassatt, Edge Degas, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, and James McNeill Whistler, as well as a print collection spanning 400 years.

Hill-Stead was the first architectural project of Theodate Pope Riddle (1867-1946), who was the fourth registered female architect in the country, an early proponent of historic preservation, and caretaker of the family art collection. She designed Hill-Stead as a country home for her parents, and the 33,000 square foot Colonial-Revival mansion was completed in 1901.

When Theodate died in 1946, her will stipulated that Hill-Stead become a museum as a memorial to her parents, and "for the benefit and enjoyment of the public." She called for the house and its contents to remain intact: not the be moved, lent or sold.

Theodate's vision for Hill-Stead was not limited to the architecture - she was equally interested in the surrounding landscape. The original gardens at Hill-Stead included an expansive Walking Garden for strolling, and a Sunken Garden designed by Beatrix Farrand.

The octagonal Sunken Garden occupies nearly an acre, and boasts a summer house, brick walkways, and a stone sundial inscribed with "Art is Long, Life is Brief" in Latin. More than 90 varieties of perennials in shades of pink, blue, purple and white accented with silvery-gray foliage mimic the color palette of the Impressionist paintings found within the mansion.

July and August are perfect for visiting Hill-Stead. The tour of the home showcases beautiful antiques, decorative arts, and of course the art collection. In addition to the gardens, Hill Stead's three miles of walking trails feature a pond habits, meadows. lowland, and forests, and are a nature enthusiast's and bird watcher's paradise. The museum also hosts an annual poetry festival with five nationally acclaimed poets, poetry writing workshops, and musical entertainment. For more information, visit hillstead.org

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Longwood Reimagined: A New Garden Experience

Interior View, West Conservatory. Image by Ngoc Minh Ngo. Courtesy of Reed Hilderbrand.

By Jourdan Cole, Longwood Gardens

Longwood Gardens, America’s greatest center for horticultural display, will unveil Longwood Reimagined: A New Garden Experience to the public on November 22, 2024, celebrating the final stage of the most ambitious revitalization in the Garden’s 100-year history. Led by the acclaimed architecture practice WEISS/MANFREDI in collaboration with eminent landscape architecture firm Reed Hilderbrand, Longwood Reimagined expands the public spaces of the renowned central grounds adding new buildings and new landscapes across 17 acres. 

The grand opening will be celebrated with two weeks of festivities, including member-only preview days and special events. Longwood Reimagined debuts in conjunction with the Gardens’ renowned holiday spectacular, A Longwood Christmas, featuring more than half a million twinkling lights across hundreds of acres and festive fountain shows, which will be on view from November 22, 2024 through January 12, 2025. 

Exterior View, West Conservatory View from the Main Fountain Garden. Image by Albert Vecerka/Esto. Courtesy of WEISS/MANFREDI.

Paul Redman, President and CEO of Longwood Gardens said "The unveiling of Longwood Reimagined marks not only a milestone for Longwood Gardens but also a bold leap into the future of defining what it means to be a great garden of the world whose foundation is based upon horticultural excellence. This project honors our legacy by embracing innovations and sustainability practices that define 21st century garden artistry. We’re excited to invite our guests to experience the newest addition to our collection of world-class gardens with the unparalleled beauty and creativity that WEISS/MANFREDI and Reed Hilderbrand have brought to life through this transformational journey. With new spaces to explore and dynamic landscapes that evolve with the seasons, Longwood Reimagined ensures that every visit will offer a fresh, immersive experience."

Exterior View, West Conservatory. Image by Albert Vecerka/Esto. Courtesy of WEISS/MANFREDI.

A GLASSHOUSE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
In keeping with Longwood’s tradition of blending fountain gardens and horticultural display, the centerpiece and largest single element of Longwood Reimagined is a new 32,000-square-foot glasshouse, designed by WEISS/MANFREDI. Inside is an immersive Mediterranean Garden featuring planted islands, pools, canals, and low fountains, designed by Reed Hilderbrand. The new West Conservatory with its asymmetrical, crystalline peaks appears to float on a pool of water, while inside, a unique garden under glass evokes the character of the Mediterranean, where both wild landscapes and cultivated gardens express an inseparable relationship between water, stone, and plants. 

Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi, principals of WEISS/MANFREDI and lead designers of Longwood Reimagined, whose involvement began over a decade ago, said: “We’re inspired by the sense of discovery and innovation that are defining signatures of Longwood Gardens. We envisioned this transformation of 17 acres as a cinematic journey, a sequence of experiences that range from intimate to grand, reshaping the western grounds into a cultural campus that brings Longwood into a new century. With the West Conservatory as the centerpiece of this newly conceived crystalline ridge, the pleated roof, branching columns, and tapered perspectives extend the marriage of architecture and horticulture that is intrinsic to Longwood's identity.”

Building on the great 19th-century tradition of glasshouses through new sustainable technologies, the West Conservatory is a living, breathing building. Prioritizing sustainability, 128 geothermal wells have been drilled approximately 315 feet deep and are connected to a ground-source, multi-stage heat exchanger that provides heating and cooling to the lower level of the new conservatory, administration building, and the lower reception suite. The main level of the West Conservatory relies on year-round passive tempering of fresh air provided by 10 earth ducts, which are 300-foot long, three-foot diameter tubes, buried under the south slope of the gardens. As fresh air is drawn through the earth ducts, it is warmed or cooled by the earth depending on the season. The earth-tempered air is introduced to the space at the pedestrian pathway to provide passive thermal comfort for occupants and visitors. This innovative design means that the building increases the effectiveness of natural ventilation and reduces the dependence on mechanical cooling in hot weather and supplemental heating in cold weather. 

Interior View, West Conservatory. Image by Ngoc Minh Ngo. Courtesy of Reed Hilderbrand.

A MEDITERRANEAN TAPESTRY
Inspired by the gardens and landscapes of the six global Mediterranean ecozones (the Mediterranean Basin, South Africa's Cape Region, coastal California, Central Chile, and Southwestern and South Australia), the West Conservatory garden incorporates three planted islands set on an expansive sheet of water.

Sixty species of plants compose the tapestry of the permanent garden. Drifts of low shrubs and perennials carpet the islands, many with tufty, billowy forms and small leaves that reflect the plants’ response to the scarcity of water, infertile soils, and windswept conditions of this ecozone. The composition includes a range of iconic plants: Agaves (Agave), Aloes (Aloe 'Johnson’s Hybrid’), Blueblossom (Ceanothus griseus var. horizontalis ‘Yankee Point’), and the tiny pink flowers of Deltoid-leaved Dewplant (Oscularia deltoides) that hug the ground. A slightly taller shrub layer expands the garden’s texture and includes the evergreen pincushion shrub (Leucospermum ‘Brandi Dela Cruz’); the dense Egg-and-Bacon plant (Eutaxia myrtifolia), which is known for its two-toned yellow and red-brown flowers; and the aromatic Prostanthera rotundifolia known for its fragrant purple flowers. 

Rows of Cypress (Cupressus sempervirens) and Bay Laurel (Laurus nobilis) move through the drifts, framing spaces and gradually disclosing the garden. Trellis structures covered in espaliered citrus define each end of the garden. Vine structures cantilever over and shade the south walk. Canopy trees, including acacia (Acacia salicina) and palm (Bismarckia nobilis), take advantage of the conservatory's height, providing shade for visitors below. Above the east and west entrances, more than 60 baskets of the trailing succulent Baby Burro’s Tail Sedum (Sedum burrito) hang like blue-green clouds, drawing visitors’ eyes to the soaring supports and arched roof of the conservatory. Throughout the year, a series of 90 seasonal plant species will be introduced throughout the permanent plant collection, expanding bloom and diversity within the garden.
     
Kristin Frederickson, Principal at Reed Hilderbrand said, “Designing the landscapes for Longwood Reimagined has been a deeply rewarding experience. We approached this project with a commitment to creating immersive gardens that both celebrate the richness of Longwood’s existing collections and expand them for the next century. The high ridge of the property, home to Longwood’s conservatories, is now extended west to the iconic Brandywine Valley landscape. Visitors are drawn to the new West Conservatory and Bonsai Courtyard and the restored Cascade Garden along generously scaled promenades and shaded overlooks that highlight the changing seasons and Longwood’s origin as an arboretum. The pools, fountains, and planted islands of the West Conservatory’s Mediterranean Garden honor P.S. du Pont’s fascination with water in the landscape in an entirely new kind of garden within Longwood’s set of conservatories. With a focus on a permanent collection of plants, the garden celebrates the particular beauty of species that thrive in the Mediterranean’s dry climate, expanding understanding of one of our planet’s most diverse ecozones — its beauty, mutability, and resilience.”

Interior View, West Conservatory. Image by Ngoc Minh Ngo. Courtesy of Reed Hilderbrand.

THE CASCADE GARDEN
The relocation, preservation, and reconstruction of the Cascade Garden, designed by celebrated Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx (1909-1994) and first opened in 1992, is another key element of Longwood Reimagined. The Cascade Garden is Burle Marx’s only surviving design in North America and significantly showcases all of the signature elements of his design expression. This is the first time that a historic garden has been relocated as a whole and now occupies a more prominent position in the Longwood experience. 

A new 3,800 square foot, WEISS/MANFREDI-designed glasshouse has been created for the garden, which was formerly installed in a retrofitted space in the Main Conservatory. The new, bespoke space recreates exactingly the vertical rock walls, cascading waterfalls, and clear pools designed by Burle Marx. They form the framework for a dense ensemble of plants found in a tropical rainforest, including palms, bromeliads, philodendrons, and more. The new glasshouse also features updated mechanical systems to improve climate control and sustainability. Adjustments to the garden path were meticulously calibrated to meet accessibility standards without compromising the garden’s design, resulting in a more inclusive and now-ADA-compliant experience. A new courtyard entrance includes an arcing path to the garden’s upper entrance through a grove of magnolias.

AN OUTDOOR GALLERY FOR BONSAI 
Longwood is home to one of the best assemblages of bonsai in the nation, with a few specimens in training for more than 110 years. This growing collection is receiving a new, dedicated space as part of the Longwood Reimagined transformation. Designed by Reed Hilderbrand, the Bonsai Courtyard is a 12,500 square-foot outdoor gallery for the display and interpretation of this distinguished collection. The design employs a series of clipped hornbeam hedges to define the space and to develop rooms within it to display bonsai for contemplative viewing. The focused expression of craft in the garden’s details references both Japanese traditions and the artistry of the bonsai themselves. A grove of ten Yoshino cherry trees animate the garden, providing shade and intimacy to the experience of the bonsai.

Among the bonsai on view when Longwood Reimagined opens will be key examples from the Kennett Collection, which gifted more than 50 superlative specimens to Longwood in 2022. The Kennett Collection is the finest and largest private collection of bonsai and bonsai-related objects outside of Asia and its specimens are notable for their lineage, including examples from many of Japan’s most famous nurseries, including the Chinsho-en nursery run by the Nakanishi family in Takamatsu. There are also bonsai trained by world-renowned bonsai artists, including Kimura Masahiko, who is known as "The Magician;" Suzuki Shinji of Japan; and Suthin Sukosolvisit of Boston. 

Exterior View, Fountain Room. Image by Ngoc Minh Ngo. Courtesy of Reed Hilderbrand.

NEW LANDSCAPES ENRICH VISITOR EXPERIENCE
The 17 acres of Longwood Reimagined also enrich the relationships between the Conservatories, new and old, and the wider landscape beyond, elevating the visitor experience throughout. In the character of Longwood’s historic landscape, trees provide the armature for moving to and among these new destinations in a variety of ways. 

The Central Grove
This new grove lies between the Main Conservatory and the West Conservatory, featuring an allée of ginkgo trees and understory of Lenten Rose and Christmas fern. Guests stroll this inviting space to access the Cascade Garden, the Bonsai Courtyard, and the Waterlily Court.

The Waterlily Court and Arcade
The revitalized Waterlily Court, first opened in 1957 and renovated in 1989 by Sir Peter Shepheard, is now restored and framed by a new arcade designed by WEISS/MANFREDI, bringing renewed focus to this unique collection. This central haven brings together the collection of tropical gardens including the Orchid House, Waterlily Court and Cascade Garden, bridging both the historic and contemporary gardens.

Conservatory Overlook     
A new Conservatory Overlook opened in May 2024 offers sweeping views of the Main Fountain Garden and its summer fountain shows from the broad stone step seating. A 700-foot-long promenade follows an allée of Yellowwood and Elm trees that stretch along the ridge, leading guests to the West Conservatory Plaza, where century-old London plane trees frame views of the iconic Brandywine Valley landscape.      

Orchid House
In February 2022, Longwood reopened its beloved, historic Orchid House, revealing stunning new floral displays within a hundred-year-old structure that has been thoroughly restored. Returned to its original configuration, a gracious new vestibule welcomes visitors and keeps temperatures steady while seamlessly integrating into the Main Conservatory. The Orchid House now exhibits 50 percent more orchids throughout the year from Longwood’s collection, which is recognized as one of the most important in the world.

A NEW HOME FOR THE 1906 RESTAURANT  
Longwood’s popular fine-dining restaurant, 1906, has a new, larger space hidden in plain sight that will elevate Longwood’s offerings in culinary arts to the same level of excellence as its horticultural displays. WEISS/MANFREDI has created a gracious new space by carving behind the historic Main Conservatory’s original retaining wall, creating a vaulted space with generous windows looking out on the iconic Main Fountain Garden. Antique Bronze vaulted mirrors on the opposite side of the room ensure that all guests enjoy views of the Garden wherever they are seated. Outside, a 500-foot-long flowering herb garden attracts pollinators and celebrates the culinary program of the 1906 restaurant and event space beyond.

WEISS/MANFREDI’s thoughtfully designed details include custom furniture that creates an elegant space and atmosphere throughout 1906. The vaulted ceiling, which features a basketweave design, was inspired by the water jets of the Main Fountain Garden. Bespoke rugs installed throughout the space evoke the color and textures seen beneath Longwood's tree canopy, and a custom design mural on the west wall translates the soft morning light in Longwood's Meadow Garden. Selected furnishings were built by hand from wood harvested from fallen trees at Longwood by the Challenge Program, a nonprofit organization located in Wilmington, Delaware. 

THE GROVE: EDUCATION AND ADMINISTRATION
Longwood Gardens’ new administrative office hub, The Grove, is built from the foundation of an obsolete building. Now an illuminated nexus of activity and programming, the Grove includes classrooms, office spaces, conference rooms, library, and archive.

ABOUT LONGWOOD GARDENS
In 1906, industrialist Pierre S. du Pont (1870-1954) purchased a small farm near Kennett Square, PA, to save a collection of historic trees from being sold for lumber. Today, Longwood Gardens is one of the world’s great horticultural displays, welcoming 1.6 million guests annually and encompassing 1,100 acres of dazzling gardens, woodlands, meadows, fountains, a 10,010-pipe Aeolian organ, and grand conservatory. Expanding on its commitment to conservation, in 2024 Longwood Gardens acquired the 505-acre Longwood at Granogue, a cultural landscape in nearby Wilmington, Delaware. Longwood Gardens is the living legacy of Pierre S. du Pont, bringing joy and inspiration to everyone through the beauty of nature, conservation, and learning. Open daily during the holiday seasons and every day except Tuesday during the rest of the year, Longwood is one of more than 30 gardens in the Philadelphia region known as America’s Garden Capital. For more information, visit longwoodgardens.org.

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From Hogwarts to Buffalo: A Magical Garden Journey

By Jim Charlier

As gardeners, we always try to make unique and creative green spaces. I'm thrilled to share a magical garden story brewing in Buffalo, New York—one that captivates Harry Potter fans and garden lovers both!

Jim's garden is whimsical and includes many projects created for Harry Potter Herbology Magic.

A Wizarding Garden Takes Root

in 2008, I planted a Harry Potter-themed garden to interest my ten-year-old daughter in gardening. As we read the books, we wrote down the names of plants and their other-worldly descriptions—like Puffapod: Fat pink pods with seeds that burst into flower if dropped, and Gurdyroot: Resembles a green onion, and wards off Gulping Plimpies.

We then made plant tags, shopped for odd-looking plants at local nurseries, and planted them together. I posted about the Harry Potter garden on my blog and social media. (First photo: the “Shrieking Shack” we built in the style of the 1897 Dutch Colonial home. The Harry Potter garden runs along the left side.)

Harry Potter Garden Highlights

When visiting our garden, you’ll find these magical elements:

• A Harry Potter Garden of magical plants

• An Ever-Raining Rain Chain

• A Deathly Hallows Trellis

• A Whomping Willow bonsai

• Cornish Pixie air plant cage

• Neville Longbottom’s Propagation Station

• Sorting Hat Hanging Basket

• A miniature Hogwarts Village

• A lightning-shaped lightning rod atop the turreted house

See a short video of the garden here.

A Wizarding Book is Born

Fast forward to 2022—I was approached to co-author Harry Potter: Herbology Magic, a book of garden projects inspired by the Wizarding World for Warner Brothers Studios by Insight Editions, a California publisher known for licensed books in pop culture franchises.

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From the Publisher:

Bring Herbology into your garden with this magical book inspired by the Harry Potter films. Packed with gardening tips, wizarding-world inspired terrariums, and enchanting uses for a wide range of plants, Harry Potter: Herbology Magic is an indispensable guide that would make Professor Sprout proud.

From Mandrakes to Dirigible Plums, from the Devil’s Snare to the Venomous Tentacula, the Harry Potter films are filled with colorful enchanting plant life. Now, you can bring the magic of the wizarding world into your own home and garden, with this comprehensive, one-of-a-kind guidebook.

Harry Potter: Herbology Magic contains helpful gardening tips, instructions for creating unique Harry Potter-inspired terrariums, and charming uses for everyday plants. Alongside the projects are step-by-step instructions and full-color photos to ensure success, as well as behind-the-scenes facts, concept art, and film stills showcasing how plants from the wizarding world were brought to life onscreen for the Harry Potter films. Practical and unique, Harry Potter: Herbology Magic is the perfect guide for gardeners and wizarding world fans alike.

25+ PROJECTS: Filled with gardening tips, instructions for building wizarding world themed terrariums, and much more

BRING THE MAGIC OF THE WIZARDING WORLD INTO YOUR GARDEN: Contains gardening projects inspired by your favorite plants from the Harry Potter films, including Mandrakes, the Venomous Tentacula, Devil’s Snare, Dirigible Plums, Gillyweed, Mimbulus Mimbletonia, and more

FOR WIZARDS OF ALL SKILL LEVELS: Full-color photos and step-by-step instructions help guide beginners and experienced Herbologists alike

MOVIE MAGIC: Packed with cast and crew interviews, behind-the-scenes facts, and concept art chronicling the creative process for bringing magical plant life from page to screen

Harry Potter, Herbology Magic Insight Editions

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Beyond Harry Potter: Buffalo's Garden Scene

While the Harry Potter theme is enchanting, Buffalo's garden scene offers even more. From Victorian homes and gardens to parks designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, there's a diverse range of horticultural experiences to explore.

For garden travelers interested in experiencing a touch of Hogwarts in real life, here's what you need to know to visit our garden:

1. Garden Walk Buffalo: This free event allows you to explore 300+ private gardens. More than 65,000 visitors from around the country, Canada, and beyond, venture to Buffalo, NY to enjoy the creativity of its gardeners. It is held annually on the last weekend in July.

1. Open Gardens WNY: Every Thursday and Friday in July, around 100 select gardens throughout the region (including ours on Thursdays) are open for visitors.

While here, also visit:

1. Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens: A year-round attraction featuring a beautiful conservatory and themed gardens.

2. The Garden Art Sale: One of the summer's most captivating events celebrates the flourishing and passionate gardening community, held the last weekend of June each year.

3. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin House: The meticulously restored grounds include a pergola, a stunning conservatory, a courtyard garden, and a “floricycle” design ensuring a rotating display of flowers from March to November.

1. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Graycliff: Perched atop a cliff with views across Lake Erie to Canada, the home has undergone a restoration including one of the rare gardens designed by Wright. The landscape features gardens by Ellen Biddle Shipman, a pioneering female landscape architect known for her Arts & Crafts-style designs.

Buffalo's gardening community, with its blend of whimsy and creativity, offers a unique destination for garden enthusiasts. Whether you're a Harry Potter fan or simply love exploring beautiful green spaces, Buffalo's gardens promise a magical experience that will leave you spellbound.

Pack your wand and set course for Buffalo—where Muggle gardens meet Wizarding World wonder!

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 Jim Charlier of JCharlier Communication Design, a graphic design and consulting firm, is co-author of Harry Potter, Herbology Magic(Insight Editions, 2023); and Buffalo Style Gardens (St. Lynn’s Press, 2019). He is a speaker on garden tourism and design, a member of GardenComm International, and a longtime garden blogger at ArtofGardening.org. He is a board member of the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens and is Director Emeritus of Gardens Buffalo Niagara. He is the current chair of The Garden Art Sale and past president of Garden Walk Buffalo. The Charlier’s garden has been featured in This Old House magazine.

Harry Potter Herbology Magic: Botanical Projects, Terrariums, and Gardens Inspired by the Wizarding World has been translated into Spanish, French, and Italian.

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The Met Cloisters Gardens

The Met Cloisters is one of the gardens profiled in The Garden Tourist’s Mid-Atlantic.

A branch of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters is the only museum dedicated to the art of the Middle Ages in the United States. Incorporating five medieval cloisters, the museum evokes the architecture of the Middle Ages and displays medieval metalwork, painting, sculpture, stained glass, and textiles. It is also renowned for its three cloister gardens, which were designed as an integral part of the museum when it was built in 1938.

The Romanesque Cuxa Cloister was originally part of a 12th-century Benedictine monastery in the northeast Pyrenees. Its columns and octagonal fountain are carved from a mottled pink-and-white marble found in Languedoc. The Judy Black Garden within this cloister is divided into quadrants by crossed paths. Each quadrant features a grass plot with a pollarded apple tree bordered by ornamental flowers and herbs that add beauty and fragrance. Medieval plants are supplemented with modern varieties to provide a long season of bloom, beginning with early crocuses and snowdrops, followed by columbines, pinks, bellflowers, foxgloves, daisies, poppies, and many other flowers that bloom until late fall. In winter the arcades are glassed in, and the interior walkways are filled with pots of citrus, jasmine, rosemary, and bay.

The Gothic Bonnefont Cloister comes from a Cistercian abbey in southwest France and dates back to 1300. This is a medieval herb garden with garden beds arranged symmetrically around a 15th-century Venetian wellhead. It features more than 400 species of plants and herbs used in the Middle Ages. Some were grown in gardens while others were collected from the wild or imported in dried form.

Plants are grown in raised beds enclosed with wattle fences and grouped according to their medieval use: cooking, medicine, art, industry, housekeeping, love, fertility, and magic. Tender plants such as turmeric, ginger, frankincense, and cardamom are grown in terra-cotta pots that can be moved inside in winter. Adjacent to the Bonnefont Garden is an orchard of lady apples and other medieval fruits such as medlar, quince, currants, and elderberries. The trees are underplanted with a meadow of spring bulbs and colorful summer flowers and herbs.

The Gothic Trie Cloister is from the Trie-en-Bigorre region of southwest France. It dates to the late 15th century, and its exuberant carvings portray biblical scenes and saints’ legends as well as grotesques and coats of arms. Of The Cloister’s three gardens, this one is the most informal. It is a colorful fantasy garden of flowers and fruits based on the Unicorn Tapestries. It features more than 50 species of plants found in the famous tapestries, including many varieties of pinks, violets, primroses, bellflowers, and wild strawberries.

The Met Cloisters, 99 Margaret Corbin Rd., Fort Tryon Park, New York, NY metmuseum.org

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Delaware Botanic Gardens at Pepper Creek

photo by ray bojarksi

I first heard of the Delaware Botanic Gardens in 2017 when a fellow Massachusetts landscape designer mentioned that she was traveling to Delaware to volunteer her time planting a new meadow. This meadow was to be the central feature of a fledgling botanic garden in southern Delaware, and was designed by the internationally renowned Dutch designer Piet Oudolf. Oudolf is a “rock star” in the landscape design community, who championed a romantic, sustainable, prairie style of grasses and perennials that are woven in soft drifts. I was immediately intrigued, and visited the garden when it opened a couple of years later.

Below is an excerpt from The Garden Tourist’s Mid-Atlantic: A Guide to 90 Beautiful Historic and Public Gardens, available here.

Located close to the Delaware beaches, the Delaware Botanic Gardens at Pepper Creek is the newest public garden in the state. It was founded in 2012 by a group of Sussex County residents who share a passion for horticulture and it opened to the public in 2019. Situated on 37 acres along Pepper Creek, the garden is an oasis of flowers and grasses, natural wetlands, and woods that are home to birds, pollinators, and other wildlife.

photo courtesy delaware botanic gardens

photo courtesy delaware botanic gardens

The half-acre Rhyne Garden welcomes you in the parking lot with ‘Brandywine’ red maple trees underplanted with 300 native shrubs, 12,000 flowering plants, and 86,000 spring bulbs. Beautiful in design, this garden serves an important function in stormwater management. Its central swale collects water runoff from the parking lot, and the plant roots of water-tolerant rose mallows and soft rush serve as natural rain filters that clean the water as it is absorbed. Pollinator plants including coneflower, wild indigo, bee balm, and phlox stabilize the soil on the slopes.

photo by ray bojarski

Above: Piet oudolf’s designs for the garden. marking out the flower beds: photo courtesy delaware botanic gardens

piet oudolf during installation. photo courtesy delaware botanic gardens

photo courtesy delaware botanic gardens

Sited on an upland plateau, the spectacular two-acre meadow garden is the jewel of the property. Designed by internationally acclaimed Dutch plantsman Piet Oudolf in his signature prairie meadow style, this garden begins blooming with alliums, achilleas, baptisias, and penstemons in spring and provides a stunning display through late fall. Peak bloom time is in late summer, when coneflowers, heleniums, milkweeds, phloxes, and liatrises provide a myriad of textures and colors. Originally planted with 85% native plants, the meadow has matured into a vibrant ecosystem. As flourishing plants self-seeded, they have created a beautiful tapestry that provides food and habitat for bees, butterflies, and birds.

photo by stephen pryce lea

Adjacent to the meadow is the Folly Garden built on the site of a former 20th-century farmhouse. Planters, old fences, and retaining walls recall residents who once called this garden home. Drifts of spring bulbs, hellebores, columbines, and ferns create an intimate garden space. The Learning Garden serves as an outdoor wetland classroom encircling a small pond.

The Woodland Garden is a 12.5 -acre riparian forest with freshwater wetlands on the banks of Pepper Creek. Mosses, ferns, and spring ephemerals flourish under the canopy of sweet gums, oaks, loblolly pines, American hollies, and sassafras. A walkway leads to the Knoll Garden, the highest point on the property, with a splendid view of Pepper Creek and the animals that call it home.

photo courtesy delaware botanic gardens

The Delaware Botanic Gardens continues to grow and mature. Not only are thousands of bulbs and plants added each year, but the Gardens now offer guided tours and educational programs. A true community endeavor, fifteen volunteers form its governing board and hundreds of volunteers plant, weed, and maintain the gardens. From Girl Scout troops to college students, professors, local nurseries, and corporate sponsors, this is a unique, inspirational garden that is supported and cherished by its community.

To learn more about the garden’s founding, see this article in Flower magazine.

Deputy Executive Director stephen pryce lea hosts a garden tour of the piet oudolf meadow. photo courtesy delaware botanic gardens

volunteers in the garden. photo courtesy delaware botanic gardens

Delaware Botanic Gardens at Pepper Creek

30220 Piney Neck Rd., Dagsboro, DE 19939, 302-321-9061, delawaregardens.org

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Gardening Tips from Joyce’s Garden

Many of you visited Joyce Hannaford’s exuberant garden in Natick, Mass. during the Enchanted Gardens Tours in June and July. Joyce’s garden is packed with colorful flowers that bloom from spring through fall, peaking in mid July. Visitors are always curious about Joyce’s maintenance routines. Below, Joyce answers some of the most  often asked gardening questions.

Joyce’s tips:

It seems that tending my garden has become a full-time job. It just seemed to happen over the years; it was not part of a plan when we purchased our home 25 years ago.

Color: To have a colorful garden, I add many annuals every year. Some of my favorites include dragonwing begonias, vincas, and annual blue salvias. These are real workhorse plants that thrive in all kinds of conditions.

Fertilizing: I fertilize my garden regularly starting in the spring by broadcasting Plant Tone on all areas after the spring cleanup. When planting my annuals, I soak the plants in a mixture of water and fish emulsion. I use Alaska Fish Emulsion or Maxsea which are both dissolved in water. All my pots also get a weekly feeding of fish emulsion.

Watering: I have 12 zones of sprinklers which run off of a deep well that we dug just for the gardens. Daily watering of the pots is necessary. All the window boxes are watered daily with misters from the sprinkler system.

Mulching: I mulch all of my gardens in late spring with a local product called Mad Mics, which is a combination of leaf mulch and aged horse manure. This mulch feeds the soil and deters weeds. After years of application, I have rich soil and vigorous plants. I also add compost when planting my annuals.

Pruning: I perform the Chelsea Chop in early June to reduce the height of tall perennials. I usually cut a third of the plant to encourage branching. Montauk daisies and phloxes really benefit from this.

Staking: I stake early in the season, while the plants are less than a foot tall. Plants that I stake include delphiniums, dahlias, lilies and fall anemones.

Deadheading: I try to deadhead daily to encourage new blooms.

Dividing: The dividing usually happens in August when the perennials start looking seedy after the usual summer drought.

Critters: While I don’t have an issue with deer, rabbits are a constant battle for me as for all my gardening friends. I’ve made cages from 1” black wire mesh that are 12” and 24” tall, and secured with small black tie wraps. Certain plants are candy for the rabbits, and if they aren’t caged, they get eaten to the ground. I also use Plantskyyd, Rabbit mace, Liquid Fence, Red pepper, Repels-all, but the cages provide the best protection over all.

To read more about Joyce’s garden, read Joie de Vivre in Joyce's Garden.

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The Quest for the Perfect Rose

Rose Lion’s fairy tale with Clematis Huldine

Every year I focus on updating a different section of my garden, and 2016 was the year of the rose bed. I have always grown roses in my garden—in fact they were the first flowers that I planted when we moved into our house in 1992. Six roses came on the moving truck with us from the city. I grew them in pots on the porch of our rented apartment in Somerville, and overwintered them in the unheated stairwell. They went into the ground in a circular bed in my front yard, created by the previous owner's leaf pile that had been left there over the winter. Most of them did not survive that exposed, windy location, pummeled by northwestern winds all winter long. I was a novice gardener, and did not realize that my tender hybrid teas needed winter protection. But despite my lack of success, I was determined to grow roses in my garden.

Aloha Rose was one of the roses that I brought from my city apartment, and it blooms to this day on my trellis.

Rose aloha, now 34 years old

I created new beds in sheltered locations, and ordered barefoot rose collections—hybrid teas from Jackson and Perkins for the bed bordering my stone garage, fragrant David Austin roses to grow along the fence. The roses were undoubtedly fussy plants, ravaged by aphids and Japanese beetles, and stripped of their leaves due to blackspot and other fungal diseases. Despite winter protection, some reverted to their Blaze rootstock, so instead of a yellow shrub rose, I ended up with another red climber that bloomed only once a year.

But when they were in bloom, the roses were gorgeous. Every year, my children lavishly decorated the table with roses for my Mother's Day breakfast, and made elaborate bouquets for my June birthday celebration. They even brought me a bouquet of my roses when I was in the hospital one November. So even as I debated whether I should continue growing these beautiful, fussy flowers, I knew that I could not give them up. I decided to go on a quest for roses that were winter hardy, disease-resistant, fragrant, re-blooming, and had the "cabbage-rose" look of old-fashioned roses that I love.

a birthday bouquet made by my daughter

At the Connecticut Flower Show, I attended a wonderful lecture by Mike and Angie Chute (RoseSolutions) entitled "Twenty-Five Fabulous Roses". Mike and Angie just published a book of 150 easy to grow, sustainable roses: Roses for New England: A Guide to Sustainable Rose Gardening. I was delighted to learn about roses that could be grown here in Massachusetts without winter protection and without constant fungicide or pesticide application. Most of these are hybrids that have been developed in the last 15 years. While Mike shared his list of 25 favorite roses, I asked him to point out those that were also fragrant. Sadly, in an effort to hybridize for hardiness, disease-resistance and a long season of bloom, modern hybridizers had sacrificed fragrance. Of the 25 roses on Mike's list, only 6 were fragrant.

I also found a second excellent guide to disease-free roses by Peter E. Kukielski, Roses Without Chemicals. Peter is the former curator of the rose garden at New York Botanical Garden, and this book highlights 150 tough new varieties of roses that perform well in all kinds of conditions. Each rose in the book has a detailed description along with a point rating which includes scores for disease resistance, bloom, fragrance and an overall score.

Cross-referencing both lists, culling out only fragrant roses and those with full, cabbage-rose heads, choosing those hardy to our zone and those that grew in a particular size range, I came up with a list of about 15 roses. Now the challenge was to find them for sale. I decided to order them via mail-order so that I could get them in the ground early. Nurseries often do not have roses until May. I was also looking primarily for bare-root, because I think that it's easier to establish bare-root shrubs in the garden. Some nurseries have already closed bare-root orders for the season. In the end, I was only able to find about half of my list, and placed my orders at White Flower Farm, Heirloom Roses, and Palatine Roses in Canada.

rose pink martini

rose first crush

My final selections were Pink Martini, Ascot, First Crush, Lion's Fairy Tale, Mother of Pearl, Pomponella, Summer Memories, and Cinderella.

Rose cinderella

Rose mother of pearl

It has been eight years since I purchased the new roses and they are all going strong. The best plants were from Palatine Roses and came bare-root. They grow to about 5 feet, bloom from June to October, and the foliage remains blemish-free all season long. My annual maintenance includes pruning and adding compost in spring, and monthly fertilization with Epsom Rose fertilizer monthly from May to August.

The best time to order plants from Palatine Roses is in January as they sell out very quickly.

I hope that you’re inspired to grow disease-free roses. They will reward you with years of bountiful flowers!

rose ascot

rose summer memories

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Antonia's Garden

By Antonia Hieronymus

When looking for a property suitable for raising a family and building a garden in 1994, my main criterion was to live by water. A property overlooking an old reservoir seemed perfect, so we jumped at it. Perhaps it should have been a clue that the house had been on the market for seven years?!  It was our first rookie mistake. While we do have mosquitoes in my native England, they are innocuous compared with the blood-sucking behemoths which teem in their thousands around us. The entire property is on a slope with a swamp and stream, presenting many design, wetlands and erosion challenges. The land had been completely abandoned, and the forest had long ago claimed back any garden there had been. And then I found out that Massachusetts doesn't really have soil, it's more like rocks with bigger rocks.

Undeterred, we set about building our dream garden. My husband (from Iowa, zone 4) was a conifer expert. I love flowers, so we figured that we would meet half-way in shrubland. Rather than fight the conditions we embraced them, using the rocks and local stone to build retaining walls, giving us much-needed flat beds to work in. The streams became features to build around, and we installed two ponds. We gradually cleared and reclaimed the garden, using the cuttings and weeds to make compost, which was then used to augment the soil. 

My beloved husband  passed away eight years ago but his garden legacy lives on. I hear his voice in his conifers and trees, which are now mature, reminiscent of the slow march of time.

photo By Antonia Hieronymus

I think of the garden as my canvas, on which to play with color, shape, texture. The garden is a reflection of me—some parts formal, some relaxed, traditional and modern, serious and whimsical. Two stone spheres stand like strong sentinels. The stone spiral draws you in. If a tree falls, I will put its stump in the stump garden, hollow out the trunk and use it as a planter, make a sculpture from the branches, all trying to use what nature has given me.

photo By Antonia Hieronymus

photo By Antonia Hieronymus

I have 43 Japanese maples (my kids make me promise not to buy any more!) It has taken me 30 years to understand how to prune them, to reveal each specimen’s individual beauty. I'll ignore the kids' imprecations and get just one more!

Interestingly, the mosquitoes seem to have gotten used to me over the years and largely leave me alone.

What joy every year to see what nature will bring, to see how things have grown, to plan and re-plan new beds and combinations. Every time I think it's complete, it changes and I am intrigued to see where we both go next. 

Antonia gardens in Wayland, Massachusetts.

The Story of my Garden on the Rocks

By Elena Lapitsky

My garden didn’t start on paper—most of it started because of necessity. Look straight at the house along the driveway: this border was created after a tall, double oak tree was removed because of its proximity to the house and septic tank. According to Feng Shui, the tree was also blocking the air flow and energy to the front door. The oak, other smaller trees and a gigantic Hicks yew bush were removed few years later. The grass still could not put it roots here no matter how often we tried to improve the soil. Only after that I started a garden border along the driveway. The space in front of the house is a little more formal with spiral symmetrical topiaries. After all, it’s an entrance to the house where formality is expected.

To the left of the house is an “alpine hill” which was my first garden, and originated after I discovered a big and interesting rock formation. On trellises which mark the entrance to “alpine hill” is autumn clematis and to the right is a huge Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ which puts on a great show. Boxwood, azaleas, rhododendrons, yews, and two pink dogwoods surround the sculptural,  impressive rocks. I try to keep this area as natural and bold as possible as it would be in nature. The stepping stone path takes you to a flat area, the only dappled shade area on my property. It took many years to “create” this space. It was hidden by big trees, tangled vines and all imaginable undergrowth. This is the steepest and highest elevation on the property that you see from the street. It took me years to conquer this hill and create a flat area at the bottom, framed by hosta, irises, lilies and sage on all sides. In spring, blue is the dominant color here. In front of you are a wide bottom terrace and four narrow terraces that form a vegetable garden above the big boulder in the middle. The huge boulder was discovered during clearing (you could only see the very top of it when I started), literally step-by-step with a shovel and many, many bloody scratchers all over my body! The best reward for this is a small hosta that planted itself inside a big split on the rock. It can’t be more natural!

Between the lawn and the boulder is a “Parterre garden” with a little frog pond in the corner to your left and a compost pile behind the cement blocks to your right. To the left of the main four terraces there are smaller terraces to accommodate a white Kousa dogwood, perennials, and spring bulbs. On the top of the hill are gooseberries and red currants, grasses, lilies, and irises. The terrace gardens also features pear, apple and apricot trees, grape vines, and potted vegetables.

The border along the street I call a “passer-by garden.” Let’s face it— grass doesn’t do well along the road: too much salt in the winter, too dry and hot in the summer. Rain washes off the soil from every yard on the street into our drainage system. (One at the end of my property is almost full with washed off soil.) After I realized how much soil goes to waste, I made this garden. I would prefer to give people smiles when they stroll/walk/jog along my street and see the beauty of the flowers. There are daffodils, narcissi, snowdrops, grape hyacinths and irises in early spring, followed by Oxeye daisies and roses in shades of red, pink and white. In summer you will see various salvias and day lilies, short and tall (some up to 6 feet), liatris that didn’t do well due to bunnies, hollyhock, Russian sage, pink and lilac bee balm, blue balloon flowers, penstemon, amsonia with its light blue flowers and soft leaves, purple lupines that reseed themselves and all colors of peonies. A weeping Siberian pear tree is adorned with small bell-shaped flowers in early spring.  A little later comes goatsbeard, coneflowers in different colors, heavy flowering limelight hydrangea, Joe-Pye weed, milkweed, dahlias, and other flowers.

But first look back to the front lawn. In almost middle of the front lawn there is a “centerpiece garden”, surrounded by stonework done professionally by my son. There used to be three old oak trees here, uprooted by a strong wind. So the garden was born with the same flowers that are in the “border and passer by gardens”. At the corner on “alpine hill”, facing the front lawn is a white weeping crabapple. I try to keep its shape as wide as I can, as  it creates nice shade for the  hosta.

As you open the gate to the pool area, you will find flowerbeds on three sides surrounding the pool. They are planted with roses and perennials that are in front of the house plus many more such as nepeta, larkspur, Montauk Daisy. There are beautiful evergreens diagonally in front of you: a Siberian tuja, a hemlock; and a ‘Star’ magnolia above the Japanese pieris. All this was planted maybe 25-30 years ago. The soil must be exceptional here because the trees are very tall.

When you reach the corner of the house to your right, I want you to stop and think, ”What is a Secret Garden?” First of all, its something that is not possible to see as a whole. It’s hidden—it needs to be discovered because there is something at the end of the pass here and around this corner or behind the tree. Secondly, it’s unexpected. You might image a lawn for kids to play or maybe some flowers here and there. Thirdly, where is the beginning and where is the end? You are on the middle of a hill. Are there any straight lines or paths? How do I get from here to there? What is this house I see under wisteria? It is a mysterious place for you to wander through and discover. Sit down, enter the garden house, take a nap, find the most far away corner with many hostas and astilbes. Observe the wild life: say “Hi” to Mr. Frog if you are lucky to see him, he is enormous and green. You may be greeted by a garter snake who guards the pond in the middle of “my mother’s garden.” Taste some blueberries or raspberries if you find them. Smell the roses. Touch the soft, silver Amsonia. Listen to the silence, and forget where you are…

Elena is a Massachusetts Master Gardener, and gardens in Ashland, MA.

A Collectors' Haven

As you enter the Kominz garden in Weston, Mass., your jaw drops as your gaze lifts up the steep slope. A serpentine grass path leads through a series of gardens built around collections of unusual conifers, Japanese maples, rare trees, hostas and perennials.

When Phyllis first moved into the house 55 years ago, the former hotel cottage was in major need of TLC. But it sat on an acre of land, and Phyllis had always dreamed of having a large garden. The first 20 years were focused on the house, work and children. When Phyllis and David married 35 years ago, the garden became a joint hobby. A tour of English gardens inspired a passion for unusual conifers. Other collecting interests followed: epimediums, hostas, daylilies, and Japanese maples. The Kominzes traveled extensively and collected horticultural “souvenirs.” Unusual Japanese maples were tucked into suitcases and brought home from Oregon. Other collectible plants were purchased on trips to New England specialty nurseries Broken Arrow, Cochato, Cady’s Falls, Avant Gardens, Haskell Horticulturists, Blanchette’s, and O’Brien Nursery.

The Kominzes’ site provided many challenges—a long, narrow shape, steep incline, and a base of ledge. In many areas, there were only a few inches of soil. They solved some of these issues by creating a series of curvilinear terraced gardens in the sharply sloped front yard. Retaining walls, fountains and a pond were added.

The curving shape of the gardens provides the illusion of a much wider lot, and terracing creates usable planting areas and keeps water from washing the garden away. While the design of the garden is beautiful, the plants are the stars here – from 200 dwarf conifers in every shape and hue to red columnar beeches, uncommon elms, and hundreds of hostas and other perennials. Phyllis has a great eye for combining plants that complement each other with their colors and textures.

After touring the incredible front garden, the richly planted backyard is a real surprise. Here invasives, particularly poison ivy and bittersweet, had to be cleared before planting could begin. The beds were then outlined with brick and gravel, and adorned with more plant collections. Inspired by years of living in Japan, David installed his own Asian garden. Phyllis added a whimsical fairy garden with miniature bungalows that resemble English thatched-roof cottages. Japanese lanterns, figurative statues, miniature chairs and metal roosters add whimsy to the garden beds.

Phyllis and David were life-long learners, attending lectures at horticultural societies (Mass. Hort., New England Hosta Society, Mass. Chapter of the Rhododendron Society, American Conifer Society, Rock Garden Society, and Lexington Garden Club), participating in garden tours, and asking lots of questions at the specialty nurseries that they visited.

They both found that gardening reduced stress, added true joy to their lives, and kept them physically fit and young at heart. David worked in the garden until his late 90s. Today, Phyllis manages the garden by herself, with the help of friends and family. She continues to collect new plants and create new planted areas. She enjoys sharing the garden with visitors, and is a true inspiration to fellow gardeners.

To schedule a visit, please contact Phyllis at flowerlady233@gmail.com.

Art and Garden Tour of Northeastern Connecticut

Barbara Timberman

Saturday and Sunday, June 8 & 9, 10 am to 5 pm

Visit ten professional artists' private gardens, many with additional guest artists on site. Experience paintings, sculpture, ceramics, fused glass, woodwork, pyrography, photography, calligraphy, jewelry, and other works of art. The gardens, which vary in style, include sculpture gardens, woodland trails, acres of mountain laurel, a labyrinth, handmade stone arches, fountains, pools, a wildflower meadow, paths, terraces and an abundance of flowers, shrubs, trees, fruits, vegetables, and herbs. Art work, much of it horticulturally inspired, will be available for purchase. Individuals, families and groups are welcome. Bring your camera or sketch book if you wish. This relaxing self-guided tour through Ashford, Coventry, Mansfield and Willington in the beautiful hills of northeastern Connecticut is free.

Article and photos supplied by the artists. For more information and a map, please visit: ArtGardenCT.com.

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Ashford

Rackliffe Garden, 49 Lakeview Drive

The Rackliffe "Secret Garden" features paths and boardwalks over a brook, a large collection of labeled miniature hostas, and a variety of interesting shade plants. There are enchanting planters created from recycled daybeds, handmade stepping stones, a totem pole, and other surprises throughout.

Host Artist: Jane Rackliffe creates bowls, serving pieces, spoon rests and decorative art in fused glass. Jane is fascinated and challenged by the endless possibilities that arise when transforming a sheet of glass into a shimmering piece of art.

Host Artist: Dan Rackliffe makes hors d’oeuvre platters, casseroles and other functional pottery for the home. He primarily uses a deep blue glaze that breaks  over his richly textured surfaces. His  pottery is food safe, microwave safe and oven ready.

Suzy Staubach

Willow Tree Pottery, 24 Bebbington Road

Set in an old hayfield, this is a welcoming old-fashioned country garden. There are arbors, informal hedges, stone benches, an armillary, antique hay rake, and a Szalay hummingbird print on the corrugated kiln shed. You are invited to sit or meander. You can even pose with Josephine (a scarecrow, but she does not know that).

Host Artist: Suzy Staubach, garden historian, writer and potter, throws on a simple kick wheel and makes her glazes from feldspars, clays and sand. Her rolled rim mixing bowls, oval bakers, covered dishes, platters and fun pieces for the garden are meant to be used and enjoyed. Hers are quiet rustic pots to share with family and friends.

Guest Artist: Barbara Katz is a sculptor and potter working with clay. She creates simple forms based on, and evocative of, ancient rituals, artifacts and shamanic figures. She makes large vessels and other pieces for the home and garden.

Guest Artists: Gretchen Geromin and Lauren Merlo work as a team, collaborating on unique, handmade cutting boards and signs made from local fallen or dead trees. A meticulous craftsman, Lauren builds the boards from strips he glues together. Gretchen burns her original art onto each piece - birds, flowers, horses, frogs, rabbits, mice, dragons and fairies.

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Coventry

Barbara Timberman

Barbara Timberman Watercolor Paintings, 1194 Main Street

Visitors will delight in the abundance of lettuces planted in red-and-green patterns; the later veggies laid out in pleasing blocks of green, and the startling explosion of color from the central poppy walk. Surrounding the entire edible gardens are the delightful flowers of late spring: foxgloves, roses, Canterbury bells and columbines.

Host Artist: Barbara Timberman creates exuberant water color paintings and hand bound journals (perfect for your next garden diary). Her detailed still lifes celebrate plants  and flowers complimented with charming domestic objects such as tea cups, vases, bottles, and recently, origami birds.

Aline Hoffman

Maple Brook Studio, 950 Main Street

A stone labyrinth, its path defined by moss, graces this hidden garden. Walk the coiled path, as people have done in labyrinths for millennium, and you will feel serenity. There are also outdoor sculptures and an in-process Sanctuary Garden.

Host Artist: Aline Hoffman has been working with tree bark and polymer clay this past year to create what she calls her Forest Delights series of sculptural pieces. She also creates gourd art, birch paintings on textured paper and pyrography on wood.

Guest Artist: Elizabeth Lindorff throws and hand builds pottery that is functional for daily use yet wonderfully distinctive for special occasions. Each pot is unique with glazes that complement rather than repeat on similar pieces. Food, oven and dishwasher safe.

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Storrs/Mansfield

FentonRiver Studio, 287 Gurleyville Road

A planted "Garden Lady" greets visitors to this unique garden bursting with a vibrant display of colorful blooms and sculptures.  There is a seven-foot lion, a fountain, a large lighted fairy house, a koi pond, cast cement leaves, and so much more. Peonies, iris, poppies and roses flourish throughout.

Host Artist: Shauna Shane works in oil, pastel, watercolor and sculpture. Her subject matter includes landscapes, still lifes, figures and animals. Shauna creates cement leaves, cement and planted sculptures, and hyper-tufa planters. She will have more than 150 paintings in her studio and more than a dozen outdoor sculptures.

Leanne Peters

Flying Dragon Farm Studio, 533 Chaffeeville Road

An expansive, colorful garden surrounds the spacious barn studio. Guests can wander through a lush mix of fruit, flowers and vegetables. Amidst this profusion of horticultural delight, there is an unusual aquaponics garden in a greenhouse and  a fish pond. Birds and bees abound.

Host Artist: Mary Noonan works in oil, water colors, encaustic and collage. Using multiple styles and techniques, Mary reflects her relationship to the people and natural world around her in each of the pieces she creates.

Guest Artist: Elizabeth Clark makes a variety of crafts and art with a concentration on jewelry. She embellishes her pieces with stones, glass, wood, leather, resin and metals. Sometimes she adds an insect wing that she has found or a snippet from a plant. Elizabeth creates with a touch of whimsy. "Odd," she says, " can be beautiful."

Guest Artist: Leanne Peters creates imaginative nature art using oil, graphite, and colored pencil plus digital tools. In addition to offering her art directly, she licenses her artwork to national firms for puzzles, fabrics, paint by numbers, and cards. She created the logo for the Art and Garden Tour.

Khuyay Farm, 441 Warrenville Road (Route 89)

This is an alpaca farm with fenced pasture land, a pretty red barn, gnarled old trees and wildflowers. There's a new shade garden and a new emphasis on native plants, with a goal that 75% of the plants will be native within the next couple of years.

Host Artist: Janet Dauphin creates fused glass nightlights, dishes, and window hangings in brilliant colors and exciting forms. This year she is making necklaces with glass pendants. She continuously marvels at how the heat of her kiln transforms, shapes and colors glass. Magic!

Guest Artist: Nora Charters' photographs honor small-town life and the softer, moodier side of the Quiet Corner: the people, farms, woods, and flowers. Recently she has focused her lens on yoga and trucks. Working in both black and white and color, she offers prints on canvas and fine paper.

Michelle Allison

Michelle Allison: Michelle: Metal Art,  638 Browns Road

This is two intriguing gardens. There is a perennial flora garden with an eye-catching water feature and striking architectural elements. There is a spectacular  sculpture installation space featuring large, airy vessels that are a stunning new interpretation of the classic "garden urn."

Host Artist: Michelle Allison continues her fascination and exploration of the vessel form, but after 55 years working with wood, she has turned to metal. Constructed of ribs and rings, her large metal vessels include capacious negative space, thus appearing light and open. For some pieces she uses the bold automotive colors that enhanced her wood vessels, for others,  a rich rust patina.

Scott Rhoades

Scott Rhoades Studio, 422 Browns Road

Ellie and Scott Rhoades have created a picture-perfect garden around their house and the studio Scott built himself. There are stone arches, formal borders, terraces, a pool, fruit trees, a highly productive vegetable garden, an old-fashioned swing and a wealth of specimen shrubs, trees and perennials.

Host Artist: Scott Rhoades' award winning acrylic paintings are in the style of traditional realism. His subjects  are based on his experiences and travel: the wilderness, weathered barns, historic buildings, people, and animals. His works are shown and collected throughout the US and internationally.

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John C. Starinovich

Willington

Holes in the Woods, 17 Lustig Road

A labor of love, this garden includes streams, a half-acre pond, a colorful wildflower meadow, and acres of blooming mountain laurel. Two miles of named woodland trails wind through a lavish display of ferns, moss, boulders and ledge. And, oh yes, there are traditional flower beds too. Trail maps available.

Host Artist: John C. Starinovich uses natural holes from downed trees combined with metals, crystals, deer antler, bone, shells, seed pods, various woods, LED lights, and most importantly, mirrors to create his sculptures. He works with both hand and power tools to create his one-of- a-kind art. John has more than 100 wall hung and pedestal sculptures in his gallery. 

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The Art and Garden Tour is a member of the Last Green Valley and participates in CT Open House Day. Several of our gardens are on the Pollinator Pathway. You can follow us on Facebook at ArtandGardenTourofNortheasternCT. For more information Visit ArtGardenCT.com

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Heather Garden in Fort Tryon Park

The three-acre Heather Garden is the crown jewel of Fort Tryon Park with a stunning 600-foot perennial border punctuated with heaths and heathers as well as other flowering trees and shrubs. It began as the vision of John D. Rockefeller who collaborated with the Olmsted Brothers to create a picturesque park overlooking the Hudson River.

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, Fort Tryon was home to several beautiful estates. Rockefeller began acquiring these estates as they came up for sale, gradually assembling 67 acres that he gave to the city for a public park. Rockefeller hired the illustrious Olmsted Brothers firm to design Fort Tryon Park in their signature picturesque landscape style that would preserve the spectacular vistas of the Hudson River and the Palisades. The Heather Garden was to be a distinct area of beauty within the park, built into the side of a rocky ridge. Low-growing heather was chosen as the predominant plant so it would not obscure the views. The site provided many challenges with its steep, rocky topography and thin soil. It took four years to transform it into a manicured landscape with promenades, stone retaining walls, terraced wooded slopes, lush gardens, and eight miles of paths for pedestrians.

Since its completion in 1935, the park has been restored several times. The latest renovation of the Heather Garden was completed in 2010 by landscape designers Lynden B. Miller and Ronda M. Brands. The result is a spectacular flower garden with 550 varieties of plants.

The garden is bisected by a central path. On one side is the perennial border with old-world roses, historic azaleas, hydrangeas, and other flowering shrubs that provide year-round structure for the ever-changing tapestry of perennials. On the other side of the path is the heather bed, anchored by several historic yews and a massive Siberian elm. More than 30 varieties of heaths and heathers hark back to the garden’s original design. They are set amidst companion plantings of perennials, conifers, and ornamental trees. The topography and plantings vary from rocky slopes hosting delicate alpines to meadow-style plantings of sun-loving perennials.

In the spring, flowering dogwoods, rhododendrons, and azaleas complement peonies, candytuft, Siberian irises, poppies, and salvias. Summer brings on yarrows, hibiscus, globe thistles, roses, catmint, and astilbes. Butterfly weeds, red hot pokers, black-eyed Susans, and coneflowers provide food for pollinators. In the fall, dramatic color arrives with spectacular fall foliage and the blooms of asters, anemones, stonecrops, and hydrangeas. Throughout the seasons, foliage plants like purple smoke bush and heuchera provide long-lasting pops of color while clematis, hyacinth bean, and other vines trained on teepees add vertical interest.

Featured in The Garden Tourist’s Mid-Atlantic.

Heather Garden, Fort Tryon Park, Center Path, New York, NY 10040, 212-795-1388, forttryonparktrust.org

Hours: Daily 6 am–1 am Admission: Free

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Redvein Enkianthus

By Joan Butler

photo by kenpei

Recently, I came across a list of Cary Award-winning plants. https://nebg.org/cary-award-past-winners/ The Cary Award program, named after Shrewsbury plantsman Ed Cary, was designed to highlight relatively uncommon plants that New England gardeners can choose with confidence as good performers for their home landscapes. The program was administered by the Worcester County Horticultural Society from 1997-2019. In its first year, five plants were selected as winners. One of these is a favorite of mine, Redvein Enkianthus.

I first encountered this plant many years ago, on a garden tour of a remarkable rhododendron garden in Concord, MA. The garden was full of towering rhododendrons, mountain laurel and azaleas. As I walked along the woodland paths, I found myself beneath a tall, smooth-barked shrub with dangling creamy pink flowers. Later, I asked the owner about the plant and learned it was a Redvein Enkianthus.

photo by joan butler

Redvein Enkianthus (Enkianthus campanulatus) is an upright deciduous shrub that is native to the open woodlands of Japan. It has a slow to moderate growth rate, but can eventually reach the size of a small tree (15-20 feet).  It is hardy in Zones 4-7, making it an ideal selection for New England gardens. It has a graceful branch pattern, with elliptical leaves clustered at the branch tips. The bluish-green summer foliage turns to show-stopping shades of brilliant red, orange and yellow in autumn.

Bloom time is late spring/early summer. The half-inch long bell-shaped flowers hang in clusters (racemes) near the branch tips and are creamy white accented with red veins. The flowers are followed by dangling brownish seed capsules that are not particularly showy, but which add an element of distinction to the winter landscape, especially when frosted with a light coating of snow or ice.

Enkianthus c. ‘Showy Lantern’ by avant gardens

Hybridizers have introduced new cultivars with an increased range of flower color, such as the red-flowered ‘Red Bells’, and the dark pink-flowered ‘Showy Lantern’, introduced by Weston Nurseries. There is also a naturally occurring white-flowered form, ‘Albiflorus’.

Redvein Enkianthus prefers cultural conditions similar to those required by rhododendrons: acidic soil, with good drainage and moderate moisture. It is useful in the woodland garden, in the shrub border or as a specimen plant. It prefers part shade to full sun. It is considered pest- and disease-free, and is rarely damaged by deer.

photo by joan butler

My own Enkianthus is now nearly ten feet tall and functions as a small, multi-trunk tree in my landscape. It is planted next to my deck, where we can enjoy its dainty spring-time flowers at eye-level. Right now, in late March, its pointy little buds are yellow at the base and rosy pink at the tips, announcing that spring really is here!

Redvein Enkianthus is easily grown and deserves to be more widely used in the home landscape. It is a valued addition to the woodland garden or the shrub border, and is ideal for small gardens due to its slow growth rate. It offers four-season interest with its delicate spring flowers, rich green summer foliage, brilliant autumn color, and the winter prominence of its seed capsules and smooth gray-brown bark. I wouldn’t be without this graceful, distinctive shrub.

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Best Spring Bulb Displays in the Northeast

HOlland ridge farms (photo courtesy of holland ridge farms)

Ready to welcome spring after a long Northeast winter? Nothing lifts the spirit like a stroll among masses of daffodils, tulips and other spring bulbs. Here’s my list of wonderful spring bulb displays to enjoy this year.

new england Botanic Garden

New England Botanic Garden

Mid-April to late May, Boylston, MA

Enjoy a changing bulb display at New England Botanic garden, beginning with Reticulated Iris and Hyacinths in mid-April, fields of 25,000 daffodils in late April to early May, and gorgeous tulip displays in mid to late May. nebg.org

Spring Bloom Fest at The Stevens Coolidge House and Gardens

Spring Bloom Fest at The Stevens Coolidge House and Gardens

Late April–mid-May, N. Andover, MA

Immerse yourself in the beauty of more than 175,000 tulips and other bulbs, filling nine display gardens with the exuberant colors of spring. the trustees

Naumkeag Daffodil and Tulip Festival

Late April–mid-May, Stockbridge, MA

Stroll through the 8 acres of our world-renowned gardens decorated with over 75,000 daffodil, tulip and minor bulbs as we celebrate spring in the Berkshires. the trustees

Nantucket Daffodil Festival

April, Nantucket, MA

Nantucket’s annual daffodil celebration includes the Nantucket Daffodil Flower Show, a window decorating contest, antique car parade, tours, and art shows. Come in costume to the Daffy Hat Contest and children’s parade. daffodilfestival.com

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens

Late April–late May, Boothbay, ME

Coastal Maine’s display gardens feature thousands of tulips, daffodils and other spring bulbs from late April to late May in one of New England’s premier public gardens. mainegardens.org

Blithewold Daffodil Days

Blithewold Daffodil Days

April through Mid-May, Bristol, RI

The Bosquet, a cultivated woodland, features more than 50,000 daffodils at Blithewold Mansion Gardens and Arboretum. You will also see many woodland wildflowers in bloom.  blithewold.org

Wicked Tulips Flower Farm

Late April–mid May, Exeter, RI and Preston, CT

Wicked Tulips has the largest u-pick tulip field in New England, with 600,000 early, mid, and late blooming tulips. Enjoy the fields of color, and bring home a fresh hand-picked bouquet. The early tulips begin blooming in late April, followed by waves of later blooming tulips until Mother’s Day. The website Bloom Report provides important updates and allows you to see what is in bloom. Advance tickets are required and must be purchased online. wickedtulips.com

Green Animals

Green Animals

April–May, Newport, RI

Visit the nation’s northernmost topiary garden ablaze with the bright colors of tulips and daffodils!

Newport Daffodil Days Festival

April, Newport, RI

Now in its 8th year, the Newport Daffodil Festival has beautified the city with more than 1 million daffodils. The week-long celebration includes a garden party, classic car parade, concerts, tours, dog parade and much more. newportdaffydays.com

Elizabeth Park

Mid-April–mid May, Hartford, CT

Daffodils in mid-April give way to a beautiful display of 11,000 tulips that peak on Mother’s Day. elizabethparkct.org

Colorblends

ColorBlends House and Spring Garden

Bridgeport, CT

 Stroll through an evolving display of color as snowdrops, crocuses, daffodils, tulips and other spring-flowering bulbs come into bloom at the ColorBlends House and Spring Garden. Located in Bridgeport’s  Stratfield Historic Distric, the 1903 Colonial Revival  mansion is surrounded by an intimate garden designed by distinguished Dutch  garden designer Jacqueline van der Kloet for Colorblends Wholesale Flowerbulbs. colorblendsspringgarden.com

Bartlett Arboretum & Gardens

Late April–mid May, Stamford, CT

Enjoy planting of early bulbs, daffodils and tulips blooming in 93-acres of formal gardens and natural habitats. bartlettarboretum.org

Meriden Daffodil Festival

April, Meriden, CT

One of Connecticut’s favorite celebrations, the Meriden Daffodil Festival features a juried craft fair, rides and food vendors, and an amazing fireworks show, all set against a spectacular display of 600,000 daffodils. daffodilfest.com

New York Botanic Garden

April–May, Bronx, NY

Explore the Rock Garden for tiny species daffodils, and Daffodil Valley, where the Murray Liasson Narcissus Collection is located. See the latest hybrids on the Daylily/Daffodil Walk, and antique cultivars planted in a seal of yellow and white on Daffodil Hill. nybg.org/garden

Reeves-Reed Arboretum

Reeves-Reed Arboretum

Mid April, Summit, NJ

Celebrate spring with a "host of golden daffodils," as poet William Wordsworth wrote, at Reeves-Reed Arboretum and enjoy one of the largest daffodil collections in New Jersey. The collection, planted in the Arboretum's glacially carved 'kettle' or bowl, was started in the early 1900s by the original owners of the property. Today the collection boasts more than 50,000 bulbs and the annual Daffodil Day brings visitors from all over the tri-state area. reeves-reedarboretum.org

Deep Cut Gardens (photo deep cut gardens)

Deep Cut Gardens

Mid-April–mid May, Middletown, NJ

Beautiful tulip and daffodil blooms are on display in this 54 acre formal garden. monmouthcountyparks.com

HOlland ridge farms (photo courtesy of holland ridge farms)

Holland Ridge Farms

April, Cream Ridge, NJ

Tulip Festival with more then 8 million tulips that you can pick. hollandridgefarms.com

Frelinghuysen Arboretum

Frelinhuysen Arboretum

Mid April-mid May, Morris Township, NJ

The formal gardens at Frelinghuysen Arboretum feature gorgeous bedding displays of tulips. arboretumfriends.org

Frelinghuysen Arboretum

Chanticleer

Chanticleer

Early April to mid-May

Chanticleer is ablaze with spring bulbs from species tulips, miniature daffodils and grape hyacinths on the hillside, to formal bedding of tulips and daffodils around the mansion. A sloping lawn, punctuated by flowering shade trees, features 80,000 white or pale yellow narcissus running in two rivers to the bottom. Virginia bluebells, trilliums, grape hyacinths and camassias create gorgeous displays in the woodlands. chanticleergarden.org

Longwood Gardens

Longwood Gardens

Early April to early May, Kennett Square, PA

Early spring bulbs like glory-of-the-snow, winter-aconite, and crocus first herald the season’s arrival, with gorgeous tulips, wisteria, and flowering trees creating a lush spring tapestry of color, fragrance, and warmth. longwoodgardens.org

Longwood Gardens

Gardening in March: 10 Things You Can Do to Prepare for Spri

With temperatures climbing this week, the feeling of spring is in the air. While I know that true spring is still a ways off, the desire to get outside and work in the garden is getting strong. Luckily, there are a few garden tasks that should be done now, before the soil warms up, the trees leaf out, and the rapid growth of bulbs and perennials begins.

1. Prune deciduous trees and shrubs

Late winter is prime pruning time for deciduous trees and shrubs, while they are still dormant. Always use sharp tools to make clean cuts, and let the wounds heal naturally. Remove dead, damaged, or diseased wood, suckers and water sprouts. This is the ideal time to prune fruit trees and summer-blooming shrubs such as weigela, butterfly bush, redtwig dogwood, and spireas.

2. Pamper discolored evergreens

Evergreen foliage may become brown or bleached during winter due to excessive transpiration, sun exposure, or cold temperatures in early fall. Injured plants should be fertilized in early spring and watered well throughout the season. It’s best to wait until mid-spring before pruning out injured foliage. Although brown foliage is most likely dead, the buds, which are more cold-hardy than foliage, will often grow and fill in the shrub. If the buds have not survived, prune dead branches back to living tissue.

3. Remedy snow and ice damage on multi-leader trees

Heavy snow and ice storms cause damage by bending and breaking branches. Multiple leader, upright evergreens, such as arborvitae and juniper, and multiple leader or clump trees, such as birch, are most subject to snow and ice damage. Small trees can be temporarily wrapped together or the leaders tied with strips of strong cloth or nylon stockings to correct the splaying that occurs in winter. Large multi-stemmed trees should be cabled together by a professional arborist.

4. Prune hydrangeas

I like to leave most of my hydrangea blooms for winter interest in the garden, but now is the time to prepare the shrubs for spring growth. I carefully remove any dead branches from all my plants, cutting down gradually on each stalk to make sure that I don't remove a branch that looks dead, but is green half way down the stem. I reduce my mature paniculata hydrangeas to about half their height to keep them in scale with their garden location. My hedge of ‘Annabelle’ hydrangeas is cut back to 2’ in height. This keeps the hedge at a compact height, and the plants produce stronger stems to hold up those giant white mopheads. My ‘Endless Summer’ hydrangeas receive a very light pruning to remove the dried flowers and restore a rounded shape.

5. Trim roses and remove winter mulch

Winter pruning should be done when the season begins to warm up and the small buds begin to swell. It is best to wait until the worst of the frosts have passed - early April in Massachusetts. I remove any dead or weak stems and last year’s flower buds, and reduce shrub roses to about half their size, aiming to create a nice rounded shrub. I also gradually remove my winter mulch of compost or shredded leaves.

6. Prune Group 3 (or Type C) clematis

These are the summer blooming varieties such as the viticellas, Jackmanii types, texensis, the herbaceous species such as integrifolia and recta that bloom on new wood and the late bloomers such as Sweet Autumn Clematis (C. terniflora) and orientalis types. Clematis in Group 3 mainly flower on new wood produced in the current year and should be pruned back severely every year in late winter, when they are completely dormant, to about 12 - 14 inches. Leave at least two pairs of buds (4) on each stem of the plant. Most Group 3s are very fast growing and will reach their full height before blooming every summer. If you fail to prune these, they will develop long 'legs' that get woody and will be devoid of foliage and blooms.

7. Cut back ornamental grasses

I like the look of ornamental grasses in early winter, but by late January, they have collapsed into a mess of tangled stalks. This is a great time to clean up the grasses before new shoots appear in the spring.

8. Cut back foliage of persistent perennials

Perennials with evergreen foliage, such as hellebores, epimediums, and ginger will soon start sending out new growth or flowers. Late winter is a great time to remove last year’s tattered foliage without harming the emerging new shoots or flower buds. To fully enjoy the blooms of your Orientalis hellebores, make sure that you remove all of last year’s foliage. Hellebore Foetidus grows as a single stalk, so should NOT be trimmed in this way.

9. Replant heaved plants

The freezing/thawing cycles of early spring sometimes lift entire small plants out of the ground. Check your garden for any heaved perennials and gently replant and water them as soon as possible. Heucheras, astrantias and newly planted perennials are susceptible to heaving. A layer of winter mulch or evergreen bows remedies this problem by keeping the soil at a more even temperature through the winter.

10. Feed spring bulbs

Spring bulbs will benefit with a dose of an all-natural organic fertilizer as their green tips push through the ground.

Winterthur: A Glorious du Pont Garden

An excerpt from The Garden Tourist’s Mid-Atlantic: A Guide to 90 Beautiful Historic and Public Gardens by Jana Milbocker. Publication date: April 2024

Nestled in 1,000 acres of rolling hills and meadows in the Brandywine Valley, Winterthur is a historic estate with a magnificent 60-acre garden and a museum of American decorative arts. The collection of 90,000 objects made or used in America since 1640 is displayed in a 175-room museum that was once the home of Henry Francis du Pont. Accompanying graduate degree programs and an extensive research library make Winterthur the leading center of decorative arts in the country.

When Henry Francis du Pont inherited Wintherthur in 1927, he had already been responsible for its garden for almost 20 years. The estate had been his family home, in the du Pont family since 1816. The du Ponts had a shared interest in horticulture and farming. At its height, Winterthur was its own town, with 2,500 acres of farms, vegetable and flower gardens, a sawmill, railroad station, a post office and its own zip code. Henry earned a degree in practical agriculture and horticulture so that he could successfully manage the family estate.

Photo courtesy of Winterthur

Henry had a life-long passion for gardens and plants. Influenced by the theories of William Robinson and Gertrude Jekyll as well as his visits to gardens throughout Europe, Henry spent almost 60 years working on his gardens. The estate had second-growth oak-chestnut forests, typical of the Brandywine area. American chestnuts, tulip poplars, red maples, hickories, oaks and American beech grew in groupings in the woodlands. A trip to England with his father inspired them to add a pinetum of unusual conifers. In 1909 he began ordering spring bulbs by the tens of thousands and having them planted in large drifts throughout the property. When chestnut blight attacked the native trees in 1917, Henry began planting the newly available Japanese karume azaleas. This grew into the eight-acre Azalea Woods that fill the woodlands with dazzling color in early May. Adjacent to the house, the March Bank was planted a carpet of Glory-of-the-snow, crocus, snowdrops, Siberian squill, Winter aconite and Amur Adonis that greet early spring. The du Ponts used Winterthur primarily in spring and fall, so these were the important seasons for flowering displays.

Photo courtesy of winterthur

When he added a massive nine-story addition to the house to display his collection of antiques and decorative arts, Henry hired his lifelong friend and landscape designer Marian Cruger Coffin to design a new garden that would integrate the house with the landscape. Marian created a series of terraces and a grand central staircase that descend to a rectangular pool with two charming changing pavilions. Shaded by ancient tulip trees, the hillside plantings include dogwoods, viburnums, azaleas and handkerchief trees. Twenty years later she also designed the Sundial Garden as a spring collection of lilacs, quinces, and cherry, crabapple and dogwood trees.

Azalea Woods was a garden that he worked on for 40 years. He was the artist, and this garden was his painting. Underneath the canopy of tall trees with their leaves unfurling in chartreuse green were waves of pastel colored azaleas in shades of pink, white, salmon and red. These in turn were underplanted with Spanish bluebells, white trilliums and Italian windflowers. Henry was fascinated with color, and would move mature blooming azaleas to achieve his ideal color harmonies. He also incorporated a few discordant plants in a grouping to “chic it up” or enliven the composition with an unexpected hue.

During the last part of his life, Henry focused on achieving a succession of bloom in his garden. As more and more visitors came to the museum that opened to the public in 1950 and toured the gardens, Henry added plantings to existing gardens to ensure that the flower display continued through all seasons. He kept meticulous notes with the bloom times of all of his plants, and adjusted accordingly. He added lilies to Azalea Woods, wildflowers to the March Bank, and more flowering shrubs throughout the gardens. Henry continuously sought out new varieties of trees, shrubs and flowers, and tested them for several years before incorporating them in the garden. He formed strong relationships with Charles Sprague Sargent and other prominent plant collectors, breeders, and botanical gardens, and consulted with them on plant cultivation and new plant varieties.

Other gardens of interest at Winterthur include a peony garden that is spectacular in late May and the Quarry Garden with its spring display of Japanese candelabra primrose and other damp-loving perennials. The newest garden is the three-acre Enchanted Woods on a site once occupied by the children’s play set. With its thatched Faerie Cottage, Troll Bridge, whimsical Tulip Tree House, giant Bird’s Nest and a Forbidden Fairy Ring with misting mushrooms, it is a fantasy garden for kids of all ages. A garden tram tour is available at Winterthur which provides a history of the property as well as an overview of the gardens and grounds.

Photo courtesy of winterthur

Winterthur is featured on The Garden Tourist’s Spring in Brandywine Valley Tour, May 2024.

Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library

5105 Kennett Pike, Wilmington, DE 19807, 800-448-3883, winterthur.org

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