Do You Ever Visit Gardens?
Growing up, when my cousins visited Michigan, my mom and aunt would walk around public gardens, with us kids in tow. We would spend forever traipsing down paths, needing to pee, and begging my mom to take photos of us running in slow motion (was this a ’90s kid thing?).
But now that I’m lady of a certain age, all I want to do is visit gardens like this! When Freddie and I went upstate this summer, we walked around Edith Wharton’s gardens in Lenox, Massachusetts. It felt like the deepest breath, and entry was free.
Do you ever visit gardens? Any recommendations? New York City has two major botanic gardens, one in Brooklyn and one in the Bronx. I’ve also read about some in Connecticut that allow visitors, and of course many Cup of Jo readers have gorgeous gardens, as well. (How amazing would it be to organize a CoJ tour of gardens around Brooklyn?! Would you come?! My neighbor has a roof garden that feels like you’re walking to the sea in Maine.)
Here are a few inspiring photos…
Mothecombe House in Devon, England, photo by Ngoc Minh Ngo. The garden is open to the public — with tea and cake! — every Tuesday.
Ian McEwan’s garden in the Cotswolds, England, photo by Ricardo Labougle. I’m a sucker for a hedge.
Jasper Conran’s garden in Dorset, England, photo by Simon Upton. Can you imagine walking here during golden hour?
Le Jardin Plume in Normandy, France, photo by Clare Foster. Those wave-cut hedges are magical.
My friend Abbey’s garden in Connecticut. (Here’s the before-and-after.)
And, of course, nearest and dearest to my heart, my grandmother’s small terrace in Cornwall, England. She is greatly missed but her garden is thriving.
Do you garden at all? Do you visit gardens? I’d love to hear. Here’s Barbara Kingsolver’s Appalachian garden with Icelandic sheep and 40 different tomato plants.
P.S. 14 readers share their gardens, and 10 more readers share their gardens. Plus, John Derian’s gorgeous house and garden in Provincetown.
(Top photo by Ngoc Minh Ngo.)
Comments
99 commentsIn many cities in Italy people open their gardens to the public once a year so that people get to know the beautiful treasures hidden in the city that they would otherwise never be able to access. Sometimes they start as a small event and they become so popular that the city council and volunteers are involved. I love the concept that the people living there are looking after the gardens but they are part of a heritage that belongs to all.
Highly recommend Innisfree Garden in Millbrook, NY. I’m also a fan of Stonecrop Garden in Cold Spring.
I lived in Morocco for 4 years and my very favorite place (out of all the places I visited) is Jardin Majorelle in Marrakech, which was once owned and restored by Yves Saint Laurent. It’s small, and there’s a fee, but it’s full of vibrant colors and beautiful desert plants. It is definitely an oasis in a bustling city!
Longwood garden’s outside of Philly.
The response to this post it so amazing. I want to make California Jo’ers aware of a great org I’m part of – the California Garden and Landscape History Society. They publish an amazing quarterly journal about gardens. landscape architects, etc., and host cool garden events all over the state, and they have a fun, low-key, non-academic annual conference, this year in Palo Alto. Check it out – https://cglhs.org/.
Wow! Thanks, Emily! While I see Pittsburgh represented by the Phipps Botanical Garden, there’s a also a bigger and more “wild” space outside of the city called Pittsburgh Botanic Garden. I am so tickled by all this!
Thank you! I couldn’t remember the name of it.
I haven an English husband – we don’t live in the UK – and his mother loves gardens. She totally got me hooked and now everytime we go for a visit, I look up a garden to visit together. NHS (Wisley was fantastic!) has a really nice ones or https://www.highclerecastle.co.uk/ aka Downton Abbey!
The Delaware Botanic Gardens are a Piet Oudolf masterpiece! Super close to all the Delaware beaches. My 2, 5 and 7 year old daughters LOVE playing there every summer. Even the bathrooms are gorgeous! https://www.delawaregardens.org/
This is a belated comment, but adding here for future readers and for Emily’s mapping: I don’t see that anyone has yet mentioned the National Arboretum in Washington, DC! It is a GEM! The Arboretum isc ollections-based research facility and public garden of the USDA, established by President Coolidge in 1927. We are so lucky to live nearby and we are there weekly, at least, with our kids + dog. It is pet-friendly and free to all and open almost every day of the year. And it is huge (427 acres) – as much walking/hiking as you’d like! There is the national herb garden!! There is a bonsai garden!! There is an entire hill of azaleas (magical in spring) where eagles nest! There are Asian gardens and collections of specific tree types like boxwoods, magolias, dogwoods, etc. Every year there is a cherry blossom tour! There are flower-sale festivals! Plus it’s fascinating to see all the plant research going on. In short, it’s a dream!
I don’t see it listed here so I will put in a plug for Elizabeth Park in Hartford, CT. An historic rose garden with many other surrounding gardens, my late mother in-law is credited with saving the park from being bulldozed in the 1970s. There is a plaque to her in the center of the rose garden. Now, my father in-law’s significant other is the park foreman and she manages all the plantings. Roses are peak in June, but it is a beautiful park to visit year round.
Ooh yes! To add a few of my favorites: Harkness State Park (a mansion on the coast) in New London, CT; Elizabeth Park (oldest public rose garden in the country) in Hartford, CT; Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, TX
Bodnant Garden in Wales! I used to live nearby, and this garden is where I fell in love with visiting gardens. It has formal gardens, meadows, woods, hills, water, views across the countryside … many different spaces to explore and lose yourself in. And it has something of interest at any time of year.
I live in central Jersey and go for a walk nearly every day; often in a garden. Some of my favorites: the Leonard Buck Garden, the rose garden at Colonial Park, Reed-Reeves Arboretum. All splendid and worth a visit. I find that these places feed my soul.
Morikami Japanese garden and museum in Delray Beach, Florida is great, and their cafe is worth your time!
Emily’s map inspired me to comment! For folks in Colorado, Yampa River Botanical Park in Steamboat Springs is a gem. Community run, free, and absolutely gorgeous. Lots of themed gardens with narrow secret paths running through, beautiful flowers, ponds. Just lovely. Thank you Emily!!
There is such a sweet garden in Temecula California that we always take our boys too. It’s called the Temecula Rose Garden and my 6 and 2 year old love exploring it. Perfect for a picnic and a beautiful walk if anyone is ever in the area :)
As a nerd I am happy to report that gardening is empirically good for your brain—there are soil microbes which increase serotonin and can act similarly to antidepressants: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9564959/ Quite apart from which they are just delightful. As has been noted we’re spoiled for choice in the PNW (I still have to get to Butchart!) and in my little neck of the woods are two gems from Dan Hinckley: Heronswood Gardens in Kingston, WA, and Windcliff in Indianola, WA (you must email for an appointment to tour Windcliff as it’s Hinckley’s private residence) which are both spectacular and in addition to our northwest natives have styles and species from around the world. I also want to put in a plug for the Northwest Perennial Alliance—for $40 a year you get access to classes, articles but most importantly OPEN GARDENS around Western Washington by private gardeners—it is so much fun to geek out on plants with other real people who are growing in the same conditions and scale you are! Finally, speaking of serotonin, highly recommend watching the BBC’s Gardener’s World—Monty Don is like human Xanax.
Kate, I wholeheartedly agree with you on Gardener’s World, Monty, and all of their other hosts! It is simply the perfect tv show. My husband just gifted me (for our anniversary nonetheless) a notepad that says on the cover “Sorry I wasn’t listening, I was thinking about Monty Don.”
Monty Don is the absolute best!
As a single woman for most of my adult life, I invested in annual passes to the botanical gardens wherever I lived, as a safe place where I could read and nap on a blanket without having to have my guard up — soul nourishing place for time in nature to recharge, but also for fun solo dates & journaling all the plans to keep solo life adventurous and exciting. Now, five years into marriage, solidly in perimenopause and parent caregiving, I’ve just gotten an annual pass again. Since I don’t have the same amount of solo time, now the pass is providing the recharge I need but also doubling as quality relationship time. Easy, budget friendly date with a game of Scrabble in nervous system regulating nature? Check! Getting my mom moving outdoors in an accessible environment? Check! Modeling ways for my adult bonus kiddos to engage in the community/ support local organizations while creating solo rituals or budget friendly/ healthy social outings? Check. I love seeing how my relationship with public gardens has evolved over time. And now I finally have the space and time to super nerd into gardening at home with a partner to share the garden work! I’ll be taking classes at the gardens to leap frog my skills and join a community of gardens from whom I can learn and develop new friendships.
For Emily’s map (thank you for doing this!!) a few favorites in Iowa– the Des Moines Botanical Gardens are lovely, indoors and out. Outside of Des Moines, Pepper Harrow flower farm in Winterset is gorgeous, and the Neil Smith Prairie has amazing native flowers and a walking path.
I love this post so much! I was a teacher for the last decade and when I taught special education I started a school garden and became hooked on the therapeutic benefits of gardens. I became so obsessed that I ended up leaving teaching (years later) to study horticulture. This summer, as a celebration of finishing my horticulture program, I took a trip to the UK and visited so many lovely gardens. Some public, like the gardens at Regents Park in London, and some private like Rousham House near Oxford and The Newt in Somerset. During a brief stay in the Cotswolds I admired the cottage gardens of the residents in the small villages. I was so inspired that when I returned home to Chicago, I planned a summer “garden walk” for my neighborhood. Neighbors signed up to open their gardens to visitors, and visitors enjoyed refreshments and a leisurely self-guided tour of the creative ways their neighbors are making use of small city spaces. At the end of the day we gathered at a local pub for drinks and I got so many comments about how joyful it was to come together, meet neighbors and chat about shared interests. 10/10 recommend hosting a neighborhood garden walk!
This is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING, @anon — I celebrate you for your drive, imagination, and community-building! I am truly weepy, thinking of the joy you created allowing your neighbors to give and take the beauty of nature and community. You deserve some sort of prize!
Here in Detroit, I love: OUDOLF GARDEN DETROIT THE GROUNDS AT FORD HOUSE https://oudolfgardendetroit.org/ https://fordhouse.org/the-estate/the-grounds/
I didn’t know he did one in Detroit! That is so awesome.
I absolutely love visiting gardens, so relaxing, like a deep breath. My all time favourite is Carolside gardens in Earlston, Scotland. It is absolutely stunning in every way. http://www.carolside.com
Oops, I meant *twinkly lights. :)
Dow Gardens in Midland, MI, is beautiful place to visit year round. They are connected to the neighboring Whiting Forest, the canopy walk is really fun, and the children’s spaces are delightful. They have a gorgeous butterfly conservatory in the spring, and they feature cool art installations each year. They light up the gardens in the winter with twinkly and do silent night walks and caroling and reindeer visits…it’s such a soothing and beautiful place! https://dowgardens.org/
I’m always dragging my husband and kids to gardens—ha! One I still dream about—Butchart gardens outside Vancouver is like a fairy land. The gardens at the Vanderbilt mansion in Asheville, NC. The Japanese garden at Chicago botanical garden. June in Ireland—so many roses dripping off front stoops and wildflowers everywhere.. July in London—lush and green. Spring at Cheekwood Garden here in Nashville is gorgeous. And lunch on my back porch watching the butterflies, bees, hummingbirds, and goldfinches enjoy my own garden.
I saw on the map that someone has already suggested Denver Botanic Gardens — they have a sister location in Littleton, CO called Chatfield Farms. It has ranch/farm vibes, including an awesome pig that my kids love to visit. We love walking around the Deer Creek area and suggesting the wild lands right next to the rolling fields of grains and cultivated gardens.
Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, Wisconsin are relatively small but absolutely lovely. So many nooks, crannies, and wandering paths to explore. They also have incredible events throughout the year including great programming for kids. (And an indoor conservatory to bask in during our colder, dormant months here!) I was just wandering the gardens today with my daughter and can’t believe they’re free.
So happy to see a comment from Madison, WI as I was going to mention Olbrich Gardens too! We are lucky enough to live a 5 minute bike ride away from them, and visit often. My parents started getting our toddler a membership to the gardens for her 2nd birthday and we enjoy popping in briefly or for longer times. We recently took a class to learn about butterfly lifecycles and more and my 4 year old adored it! Lovely place.
I’m annoyingly enthusiastic about gardens. Brooklyn Botanic Garden is my go to. My family makes fun of me for oohing and ahhing at every single flower and tree there. I highly recommend Planting Fields Arboretum. We went one year on a cool, crisp October day, where the tree leaves were dozens of fall shades and the dahlia garden was inspiring!
YES!! 1. I highly recommend the Cranbrook House and Gardens in Bloomfield Hills Michigan (suburb outside of Detroit) 2. Huntington Gardens in Pasadena California blew me away!!! I need to bookmark this post!
Love this list! The Rose Garden by Lake Harriet in Minneapolis is stunning in the summer!!
Bookworm Gardens in Sheboygan, WI is the most magical place – it has gardens inspired by children’s story books. My daughter and I love it so much. We discovered lots of (new to us) favorites after visiting – Frog and Toad stories, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, and Making Vegetable Soup, to name a few. Places like these truly make the world a better place. https://www.bookwormgardens.org/
Here in Oakland, CA I am so very grateful to within walking distance to the Gardens of Lake Merritt and the Morcom Rose Garden! The Gardens of Lake Merritt are so lovely and special to me and my family and my child volunteers with the Bonsai garden. Both gardens are free and not to be missed. :)
Saw the map that a LOVELY COJ commenter created in the Friday post. Took a look at my city and I’m adding some! – Nitobe Garden – UBC, Vancouver, BC – Bloedel Conservatory – Vancouver, BC
I forgot to mention there is the most stunning gardens nestled in the Dolomiti (Italian Alps) It is called Trauttmansdorff Gardens, and it the grounds are incredible!
Looking at Emily’s amazing map and was surprised not to see ANY of the amazing east village gardens. It’s like the community garden district of NYC. They are all gorgeous and unique and community run from Children’s Magical Garden to La Plaza Cultural, the 6thBC Botanical Garden and El Jardin del Paraiso and so many more, like many many more!! My kids grew up playing in them, gardening, dancing, hearing live jazz, climbing trees, harvesting peaches, composting, caring for chickens, and meeting friends and neighbors there. They are truly the gem of Lower Manhattan and many sprung up from empty and abandoned lots that neighbors tended together. The stories they tell are legendary.
So many garden ideas, thank you! I try to visit gardens, wherever I go, and here are a few more that are worth checking out: – Walnut Creek, Northern California: Ruth Bancroft Garden (ruthbancroftgarden.org) – Santa Cruz, CA: UC Santa Cruz Arboretum (https://arboretum.ucsc.edu/) – University of Minnesota Arboretum (https://arb.umn.edu/); don’t forget to visit the Apple House, get some hot cider and fresh donuts as well … – Nurnberg, Germany: St. Johannis Cemetery – come in early summer and enjoy centuries-old roses (https://tourismus.nuernberg.de/preview/location/st-johannis-friedhof/)
Franconia Sculpture Park (outside of St. Paul, Minnesota) has art/sculpture AND restored prairie plantings. Prairies are cooler than you think. Carbon sequestration. Water filtering. Water infiltration. Drought tolerant. Supporting so many pollinators. All the textures! Big sky above and things rustling in the wind. The Walker sculpture garden located in Minneapolis also has native prairie plantings amongst the sculpture. It’s a haven and it’s FREEEEEEEE. I could go on.
I run a beautiful garden in San Fransico – Garden for the Environment! It’s been around since 1990 and demonstrates how to grow food and low water use plants in our coastal California climate! http://www.gardenfortheenvironment.org
I love your garden!!
Not sure if it has already been mentioned, but the Atlanta Botanical Garden is lovely. It’s adjacent to Piedmont Park (which is also great). Also, the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville is worth a visit.
I grew up north of Baltimore and when I was young my mother would take all visiting friends and relatives to Ladew Topiary Gardens. It’s definitely worth a visit if you ever take a road trip down that way!
Thank you for all the recommendations and the Google doc! Gardens are a regular part of my weekend routine, and they often have fun classes and programs. I like to pack a tote with a drink, paperback, journal, my art kit, and binoculars and settle in for a bit.
Florida has some nice gardens to visit when the weather’s tolerable: Fairchild Gardens in Coral Gables, Selby gardens in Sarasota, McKee gardens in Vero Beach, Worth gardens in WPB, Leu gardens in Orlando, Naples botanical garden, Washington Oaks State Park and Gardens just north of Flagler Beach. Oh and MacClay gardens in Tallahassee when the Japanese magnolias are in bloom.
I was actually engaged at a local garden! It has handmade “fairy houses” all over it, which is really fun. Now we like to go for walks there as a family, baby in tow! When she’s old enough, I can tell her the story of exactly where her dad got on one knee and proposed to me!
I love gardens. I visit one of the two birnaical gardens in Denver almost every week and spend most free time in our backyard garden. Gardens give life.
Oh, great typo! I was very excited to learn what a birniacal garden is. Oh well…
In Thousand Oaks, Southern CA, there is tucked away on a busy street, Gardens of the World, which is gardens in several different styles (a Japanese garden, an English Rose Garden) and it’s also free. http://www.gardensoftheworld.info/
Thank you for the rec! I had never heard of it and it’s on my list to visit now.
I grew up in Los Angeles and there are so many great spots including Huntington Gardens and the garden at the Getty Museum but Descanso Gardens in La Canada is my favorite. As a child, it felt magical. It’s a wonderful place to take young children for a train ride, snap engagement photos, and enjoy a summer concert. It was my mom’s happy place and she enjoyed sharing it with her children and grandchildren. She volunteered for decades and now my husband and I spend time weeding the camellia forest once a month. We donate to seasonal gardens in her name and love finding her plaque and enjoying the view. We gift a membership to our daughter every year so that she can spend quiet time there.
That’s so lovely! My husband and I took our engagement picture in the California Coast Live Oak Forest so I have a special fondess for the garden.
If you find yourself on central Illinois don’t sleep on Allerton Park
The Missouri botanical gardens is my favorite spot in St Louis. definitely worth a visit.
Well, this just sent me down an Edith Wharton rabbit hole – did you know she wrote a garden book?? Several apparently. This one looks interesting and is illustrated by Maxfield Parrish! Amazing! Would be interesting to hear about villa gardens in her voice: https://www.amazon.com/Italian-Villas-Their-Gardens-1904/dp/1112282343
If you love looking at gardens but don’t have many options near you, Gardens Illustrated is full of such beautiful images! Country Life often has some pretty shots too, and sometimes Architectural Digest features gardens. But G.I. is my favorite! Also Ngoc Minh Ngo is an incredible photographer.
Yes!!! I get GI on the Libby app (free through your library) the digital issues are delicious to save and savor. Joanna, Open Days, through the Garden Conservency has listings of gardens around the country that hosts open up to the public. It’s a great resource. So glad you enjoyed the Mount! It’s a treasure.
I’ve been visiting the Oudolf Garden on Belle Isle-Detroit, MI regularly. He is such a master at mass planting that are interesting in all 4 seasons. I love looking at the blooms and the spent seedpods from last season. Free, gorgeous, and such a little gem for our city!
Oh I hadn’t heard of this garden! I will have to check it out.
Piet Oudolf is a legend! The Lurie garden in Chicago is my favorite place. If anyone needs some escapism I recommend his books!
Baltimore has some gorgeous gardens. My favorite is the Rawlings Blake Conservatory. Their greenhouse is my favorite place to go in the winter or on rainy days.
When I was super young, my grandad bought some land in Springfield, MO and (with 3 of his closest friends) created the most beautiful park with a lake and dozens of specialty gardens. He worked out there for HOURS each day. It was truly the love of his life. He battled Alzheimer’s for about 15 years, and my grandmother would drive him out there every day to walk and weed and say hello to visitors. He died in January 2020, and every time we go out there, I feel his presence so closely. If you ever happen to be in southwest Missouri, please stop by the Springfield Botanical Gardens at Close Memorial Park.
I’m in KC! I will have to make the drive there someday!
A garden & estate I would highly recommend for Bay Area denizens & visitors is Filoli Historic House & Botanical Gardens : https://filoli.org/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22285641599 It has a something for everyone: history, architecture, short hikes, and seasonal flowers upon flowers upon flowers. The well-preserved house on the estate is a little reminiscent of Downtown Abbey, if that’s your cup of tea.
I second Filoli. It’s an amazing space most people don’t visit. The Lake Merritt Garden in Oakland is free to the public and a charming space, too.
Ha, I was about to write a comment about Filoli as well. Adding that it’s lovely any time of the year – during the holidays there are lights and hot chocolate and firepits to sit at, Christmas trees etc., and during spring time there are thousands of tulips and the like, just magical. If you are in the area, it’s well worth visiting.
My hometown of Charlottesville, Va is building a Botanical Garden and I here for it!! I visit the botanical garden in every city I travel to, but they are all old and established. Our garden is being built from scratch and it’s so cool to see the process from the very beginning, knowing that when we are all long gone, this public garden will still be serving the community.
I love doing this but don’t make a point to do it very often. I just looked around me and there are so many gardens to visit. Can’t wait to do this more often. Thanks for the inspiration.
Adding a few German gardens to this great list! 1) Not free but a very special island in the south: https://www.mainau.de/en/home 2) The English garden in Munich! 3) Herrenhäuser Gärten in Hannover 4) Schlossgarten Schwetzingen 5) Planten un Blomen Hamburg (with the free water fountain concerts at night in summer :))
I’m late to this party. Has anyone mentioned Untermeyer Gardens in Yonkers, NY? It is an old estate, though the house is no longer there. There are formal gardens, pools, and lovely walking paths. It sits on the Hudson River and is spectacular in the fall.
Love Untermeyer! It’s a gem – totally stunning.
I realized as my kids were getting older that we are a botanical garden/sculpture garden family. We will visit a zoo or an amusement park, but we are never so collectively happy as when we visit a garden. A few of our favorites are The Lost Gardens of Heligan in St. Austell, Cornwall; Art Omi in upstate New York and LongHouse Reserve in East Hampton, New York.
Since y’all threatened me with a good time, I made a map of all the suggestions from the comments as well as some that I know and love! I’ll continue to update over time as I find more or more come into the comments! https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1Ig5lIykE91255ttq8WYyiH2dBWpL9r4&usp=sharing
Wowza! This is fantastic Emily :)
Amazing! Thank you so much.
Omg Emily you are the best
this is fantastic! thanks for sharing this Emily!
Amazing! Thank you!
Love this! Could you add Cambridge University Botanic Gardens, in Cambridge, England 🌿
Whoa, this is so impressive and thoughtful, Emily! Thank you for doing this! What a nice touch!
So incredible – bookmarked! <3
Oh my gosh – thank you Emily!
Emily, this is beautiful, please add Royal Botanic Kew Gardens: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Royal+Botanic+Gardens,+Kew/@51.4787438,-0.2981479,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x48760dc5605b3443:0xd16f914f6291fb7e!8m2!3d51.4787438!4d-0.295573!16zL20vMDZrOXI?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDgxOS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D And any visitors to my home town, London, OH, it is so worth a trip!
The Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is one of my favorite places on earth. Acres upon acres of stunning gardens in different themes, with gorgeous sculptures scattered throughout. Highly recommend to anyone in the Midwest!
Wow, these are gorgeous gardens! My dad was a landscape architect before he retired, so throughout my childhood and youth we were constantly going to gardens and helping in our family garden! Now that I’m older and have my own place, I have found a new love and respect for gardening and plants, and have just started planting native species in my teeny tiny townhouse backyard. My personal favourite style is the Japanese garden. When we were in Tokyo, we would sneak into all the hotels to check out their back gardens. It was incredible how, right in the middle of one of the busiest cities in the world, there would be these perfect, pristine, peaceful gardens behind every hotel. I just did a quick Google and Nat Geo is now also onto this! https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/tokyos-nicest-urban-green-spaces-are-hidden-behind-hotels
Washington, DC, and surrounding areas have so many wonderful gardens! – National Arboretum (NE DC) – Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens (NE DC) – Franciscan Monastery (NE DC) – U.S. Botanic Garden (Capitol Hill..indoor & outdoor) – Dumbarton Oaks (NW DC) – Hillwood Estate (NW DC) – Brookside Gardens (Wheaton, MD) – Meadowlark Botanical Garden (Vienna, VA) – Green Spring Gardens (Alexandria, VA) – Annmarie Sculpture Garden (Solomons, MD)
Thanks for this list! We live near Baltimore and for some reason never venture to DC for gardens except for Brookside. I had talked to my husband about going to the National Arboretum tomorrow and this is the sign that we’ll be going!!
I have spent much time in Washington, DC, first as an intern and then as a Fellow, and there are so many gardens and parks. Dumbarton Oaks at Georgetown was my favourite (obviously, because it was my academic home for a while) because it truly feels like a green adventure playground for grown-ups, but let us not discount Dumbarton Oaks Park next door, more wild, lush, and filled with follies, dogs and mud.
The Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center is one of my favorite places on earth. My favorite part is the tree arboretum, where creaky wooden swings hang from the branches of towering oak trees.
If you come to Cape Town, I highly recommend Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens – it’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is in the middle of the city.
Let’s do an LA tour of COJ-reader gardens! Who’s in?!
I am so in!!!
In UK right now on vacation, and the gardens here are spectacular. Every castle/estate is surrounded by amazing gardens. If you live in harsher climates like Canada, and do yourself in Winnipeg, do check out Assiniboine Park and the English Garden located there.
If you can watch the documentary A man named Pearl! He became famous for his topiary garden in South Carolina. A beautiful human being and his gorgeous wife too. Has anyone in the comments ever visited? Apparently his garden has become a tourist attraction.
Oops meant to say Artichoke not asparagus.