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Sep 2 2008

Gardens, Glorious Gardens In Philadelphia And The Countryside®

Philadelphia’s Flowers And Foliage Boast Beauty, Function And Fun

Much Ado About Arboretums
In part because the Quakers who settled in Pennsylvania were meticulous about identifying and cataloguing the forms of natural life they discovered here, the Philadelphia region is internationally recognized for its wealth of arboretums. Chestnut Hill’s Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania breaks ground this fall for a new Horticulture Center. The first new major building at the arboretum in 100 years, the 33,000-square-foot center will boast a large indoor assembly space. This project will be Penn’s first newly constructed “green” building, with plans to achieve Platinum Level LEED™ Certification. Also this fall, the arboretum’s Garden Railway Display—the centerpiece of the fall garden—runs through October 13, 2008. And debuting on Memorial Day 2009, Out on a Limb – A Tree Adventure Exhibit will feature a dramatic 275-foot Canopy Walk that soars more than 40 feet above the ground. The Scott Arboretum of Swarthmore College is also planning a massive facilities upgrade and is now in the fundraising stage of a project to build an Education Center and Greenhouse. Autumn is an ideal time to visit the arboretum’s Crum Woods, a 200-acre natural forest. Plus, the Philadelphia region is home to the 650-acre Tyler Arboretum, one of the oldest and largest in the Northeast.

Gardens Of Independence
True to its ideal to preserve William Penn’s vision of Philadelphia as a “green countrie town,” the National Park Service owns and maintains a number of tranquil flowering gardens in Historic Philadelphia. Most awe-inspiring are the 18th-century, Rose and Magnolia gardens, all three of which are clustered within two blocks of Independence Mall. The 18th-century Garden, adjacent to the home where Dolly Madison lived with her first husband, reflects two successive European styles of landscaping that were often copied in the colonies: enclosed formal gardens that featured symmetrical plot arrangements, clipped hedges and decorative topiary; and a newer natural look that used the contour of the land, informal groupings of trees and shrubs and paths that meandered through the garden. Spanning one entire city block, the Rose Garden was planted by the Daughters of the American Revolution and dedicated to the signers of the Declaration of Independence, while across Locust Street, the Magnolia Tribute Garden, constructed by the Garden Club of America, honors the nation’s founders.

Historic Homes
Home to dozens of well-preserved manors and farmsteads that date to the 18th century, the Philadelphia area is an ideal place to observe how families once chose to incorporate horticulture into their lives for decoration and relaxation. A 197-acre former farm and manor home in East Nantneal Township, Welkinweir is surrounded by formal gardens (including a newly restored ruins garden), an arboretum and a sanctuary for biodiversity provided by the ponds, wetlands, meadows and woodlands that are set ablaze in autumn. Graeme Park in nearby Montgomery County features the Keith House, the only surviving residence of a Colonial Pennsylvania governor. The mansion has remained virtually intact since the late 18th century, and the natural wetlands that comprise the grounds provide a serene educational setting for a picnic, a walk along the pond or a study of the historic buildings that dot the landscape. The gardens at Wyck Historic House, Museum & Garden in the Germantown section of Philadelphia have been meticulously tended to over the last 300 years, and large swaths still retain their original plantings and layout. Wyck’s rose garden—descended from early 19th-century plantings—is especially notable.

Scientific Study
Like the Quakers, Colonial Philadelphia’s intellectual leaders were pioneers in discovering, studying and cataloging the plants they discovered in their new environment. This is most famously evidenced at Bartram’s Garden, a site less than 15 minutes from Center City where botany first took root in America. The Bartram family is credited with identifying and introducing into cultivation more than 200 native plants. The family home, which is a National Historic Landmark, and the original garden plot are on view, with many native plants on display. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and Colonial Philadelphia doctor and civic leader, helped to found The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, where he urged College members to maintain a medicinal garden as a natural and cooperative way to replenish their medicine chests. The Benjamin Rush Medicinal Plant Garden in Center City contains more than 50 different kinds of herbs, illustrating their medicinal value historically. When famed arts patron Dr. Albert Barnes lived in Merion with his wife Laura, she cultivated plants gathered from around the world and used them to expand upon an already established arboretum outside her home. Mrs. Barnes transformed the arboretum into a horticulture school, now called The Barnes Foundation, just six miles from the city. An English gardener designed the campus of Haverford College in 1834, and his influence still shows in the 18-acre pinetum, where visitors can enjoy the duck pond and nature trails while exploring more than 300 conifers labeled and arranged by family grouping.

Majestic Manicuring
While Marie Antoinette created the world’s most famous horticultural fantasyland at Versailles, the Philadelphia region has its share of formal gardens that wow visitors daily. To step through the gates of Shofuso is to enter a place of harmony and tranquility, where the large stone statue of the Buddhist deity Gizo keeps silent watch over this Japanese garden in Fairmount Park. A tea garden leads past lanterns to the ceremonial teahouse complex, then further, a small island in the koi-filled pond, a bamboo grove and a stone pagoda donated by the city of Kyoto complete the ornamental garden. In Delaware County’s Radnor Township, Asian Woods is just one of 11 pleasure gardens at Chanticleer, one of the most elaborate themed gardens on the East Coast, full of innovation and whimsical touches that peek out through the fairytale wonderlands that are The Teacup Garden and the Ruin and Gravel Garden. The gardens at the 17th-century Hortulus Farm in Bucks County are comprised of 20 separate, formal gardens, including pastoral walks, idyllic ponds and streams, intriguing follies and dramatic vistas. Statuary, reflecting pools and specimen trees dot the landscape at The Highlands Mansion & Gardens, an elegant 18th-century farmstead north of Philadelphia originally owned by a wine merchant who enhanced his “Pleasure Ground” with crenelated stone walls, a grapery and a gardener’s cottage.

Wild At Heart
Thanks to the Philadelphia region’s temperate climate, it’s possible to wander through wildflowers’ swaths of untamed beauty deep into the fall season. For a spectacular example, Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve, along scenic River Road near New Hope, features nearly 1,000 species of these native plants in a naturalistic setting. The Brandywine River Museum’s demonstration gardens use wildflowers, trees and shrubs in landscaped areas, each located in a setting akin to its natural habitat: woodland, wetland, flood plain or meadow. Jenkins Arboretum, along the fashionable Main Line, is one of Pennsylvania’s major horticultural showcases of wildflowers, rhododendrons, azaleas and blueberries that are best appreciated with a hike along paved walkways that wind through native woodland. Various types of pastoral lavender bloom during summer and autumn at Bucks County’s Carousel Farm Lavender, where 15,000 organically grown French and English lavender plants cover the countryside with a majestic blanket of purple. Nearby, at Peace Valley Lavender Farm, those who imagine themselves to be dwelling carefree amidst the gentle hills of Provence can pick their own lavender, in season.

Fall Foliage
Why fight the maddening traffic that accompanies “leaf peeping” in New England when equally resplendent shades of orange, red, yellow and gold dress up the tree tops in the Philadelphia region? At 9,000 acres, Fairmount Park is 10 times the size of Central Park in New York, but what’s even better than its size is its versatility. Leaf lovers can take in the fall foliage while jogging the gravel path along the Wissahickon River, hiking the park’s wilderness trails, stealing away onto Forbidden Drive or simply strolling the short path to brunch at Valley Green Inn. Once the campsite of General Washington’s Continental army, Valley Forge National Historical Park is now the peaceful setting of 3,600 acres of rolling hillside. Whether one is meandering along the looping paths, exploring the 18th-century encampments or mentally going back in time at Washington’s stone headquarters, all of these activities are framed in brilliant fall colors. Route 32, also known as River Road, is one of the most scenic passages in the region. Stretching along the Delaware River through northern Bucks County, River Road is dotted with bed & breakfasts, country inns, wineries, small shops, and of course, breathtaking foliage.

A Tree Grows In The City
Community gardens have sprung up across the country as popular places for neighbors to work together to beautify shared outdoor spaces, and in Philadelphia there are dozens of spots to admire the fruits of their labor. Since 1986, the Neighborhood Garden Association has been instrumental in saving some two dozen of these gardens. By converting formerly empty lots into land trusts, the association has preserved acres of land now lovingly tended to by volunteer gardeners, who can be found in all corners of the city. For instance: With its dazzling assortment of flowers and trees, a colorful building-size mural and even a fish and lily pond, West Philadelphia’s Aspen Farms has been featured by national media outlets like National Geographic and Good Morning America. In Center City, the North Street Garden provides solace to those who appreciate a thoughtfully designed arrangement of park benches surrounded by the wild beauty of wildflowers. South Philadelphia’s Bel Arbor Tree Farm & Kimball Street Garden also boasts a wildflower meadow, along with an arbor where urban gardeners have grown trees designated for replanting on city streets. Trees from the arbor are now planted along Christian Street near the Italian Market and surrounding neighborhood blocks. Growing trees for future replanting is a goal at Northern Liberties’ Seedy Acres as well, where children can frolic in the Seedy Acres Kids area while their parents tend to the flora.

Kids Corner
The Philadelphia region’s gardens aren’t just for adults—kids can also discover the green side of life while playing, jumping and running through the area’s best interactive children’s gardens. In 2007, Longwood Gardens debuted its dynamic new indoor children’s garden, with spectacular water features where young visitors encounter an imaginative group of one-of-a-kind, handcrafted garden elements, as well as pools, caves, waterfalls, an animated water “glow worm,” a bamboo maze, sculptures and a lookout tower. Princes and princesses can explore a fairy tale world at Winterthur’s Enchanted Woods™, a three-acre magical landscape canopied by majestic oak trees and inhabited by the woodland fairies. A trip to the Philadelphia Zoo brings out the animal lover in everyone—especially the young ones—but most people don’t realize that the zoo is also an expertly maintained 42-acre Victorian garden. Just across the Delaware River, parents and kids can discover nature’s wonders at the interactive Camden Children’s Garden. In addition to the Philadelphia Eagles Four Seasons Butterfly House, the Dinosaur Garden and the Storybook Gardens, the four-acre horticultural wonderland recently added a new Fitness Garden where kids can crawl, climb and learn about healthy living.

ADDRESS BOOK

Much Ado About Arboretums:

Gardens Of Independence:

  • 18th-century Garden, 4th & Walnut Streets, (800) 537-7676, www.nps.gov/inde
  • Rose Garden, Walnut Street between 4th and 5th Streets, (800) 537-7676, www.nps.gov/inde
  • Magnolia Tribute Garden, Locust Street between 4th and 5th Streets, (800) 537-7676, www.nps.gov/inde

Historic Homes:

Scientific Study:

Majestic Manicuring:

Wild At Heart:

Fall Foliage:

A Tree Grows In The City:

Children’s Gardens:

The Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (GPTMC) makes Philadelphia and The Countryside® a premier destination through marketing and image building that increases business and promotes the region’s vitality. For more information about travel to Philadelphia, visit www.gophila.com or call the Independence Visitor Center, located in Independence National Historical Park, at (800) 537-7676.

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Tagged: Family-friendly, Outdoors