uwishunuArticle published on May 10, 2024
Stop and smell the roses in America's Garden Capital...
Southeast Pennsylvania proudly wears the title of America’s Garden Capital, frequented and beloved by all ages for its award-winning gardens, parks and arboretums.
Greater Philadelphia claims North America’s oldest botanic garden (Bartram’s Garden), the oldest garden in its original plan in America (at Wyck), the site of its first Japanese garden (Shofuso) and other botanical beauties that wow researchers, home gardeners and nature lovers.
Philly is also home to delightful community gardens, as well as the world’s oldest and largest indoor horticultural event (the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Philadelphia Flower Show).
Below find more than 20 gardens and arboretums in Philadelphia and the surrounding four counties (Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery). Enjoy!
Note: This article is arranged alphabetically by section.
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Just northeast outside city limits is Andalusia, a 200-plus-year-old, 50-acre estate on the banks of the Delaware River. A Geek revival mansion is the heart of this property (once home to Philadelphia’s Biddle family), which was recently named the only U.S. Partner Garden by the prestigious Royal Horticultural Society. Must-see attractions include the wispy and ethereal Bleeding Heart flower (Lamprocapnos spectabilis) that symbolizes everlasting love in some cultures, cherry trees in bloom, ornate doors of the Walled Garden and The Andalusians steel horses outdoor sculptures. Picnicking among 800 trees and shrubs is idyllic here.
Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve offers a stunning display across 134 preserved acres. Several thousand native Pennsylvania plant species and wildflowers — from azaleas to violets — bloom here every season. It’s a perfect hike and a picnic lunch spot offering 4.5 miles of trails exploring various ecological habitats, including a bird sanctuary (over 160 species have been seen here), and aquatic life in streams, ponds and creeks. Before leaving, take a moment to meditate at the Green Labyrinth, inspired by ancient spiritual cultures.
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Chanticleer
At Chanticleer, gardeners are artists who design installations using wood, stone and metal. But there’s also a botanical wonderland waiting to be explored. Let trails guide you through vegetable gardens, terrace gardens, orchards, wildflower meadows and perennials. Along the way, stop and appreciate the bounty of colors and plantings that make up the Tennis Court Garden, The Minder Ruin Garden and Tropical Teacup Garden.
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04
Longwood Gardens
This former Quaker farm has become one of the most visited and award-winning garden destinations in the world. With over 9,000 species and varieties of plants spread out across over 1,000 acres, this tranquil oasis offers more than enough for an all-day visit. The European-inspired grounds are lush with cascading purple and white wisteria flowers, weeping Higan cherry trees, tropical delphinium flowers and so much more. But the real showstopper is the fountain garden, which sprouts dozens of water jets high into the sky throughout the day.
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05
Morris Arboretum and Gardens
The Morris is a collection of different garden features set within a landscape that offers intimate garden rooms and 11,000 trees and shrubs across 92 acres. There are global influences everywhere: from a French-style rose garden, a Moorish long fountain and a Greco-Roman temple called the Mercury Loggia to a picturesque Swan Pond, a Victorian Fernery that dates back to 1899 and the great katsura-tree. Children love exploring the 50-foot tree house and watching model trains roll by during winter holidays.
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06
Shofuso Japanese Cultural Center
Shofuso was a traveling Japanese site in the 1950s, first built in Japan, then moved to New York’s Museum of Modern Art courtyard before finally landing in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park. The traditional Japanese-style house has since expanded into a cultural center with a famed tea garden and cherry blossom trees bursting with pink and green hues each April. More to see at this “Pine Breeze Villa” are 20 full-scale contemporary murals on display, a pebble beach inspired by Kyoto’s Kamo River, a tiered waterfall, an island and a koi fish pond.
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07
Tyler Arboretum
— Photo by R. Kennedy for Visit Philadelphia
Visiting Tyler Arborteum’s 650-acre woodlands, meadows and flora is a sensory experience thanks to its fragrant gardens filled with aromatic herbs and flowers. This Delaware County public garden was first established as a family farm in 1681 and now boasts beautiful attractions across 17 miles. The Wister Loop trail links collections of lilacs, crab apples, cherries and magnolias, and the Pollinator Preserve is home to native butterflies, caterpillars, chrysalis, plants and critters. For the best views of their 180-year-old championship trees, sit high above in their seasonally open treehouses (April to November).
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08
Awbury Arboretum
— Photo courtesy Awbury Arboretum
Awbury Arboretum offers 55 acres of natural beauty and adventure. A romantic English-style Quaker home anchors the century-old property, while elsewhere guests find open meadows with a State Champion River Birch tree, ponds, wetlands and a secret garden called AdventureWoods to discover. Cross Washington Lane to explore The Farm at Awbury, home to goats, chickens and beehives.
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Tucked between Boathouse Row and the Philadelphia Museum of Art is this four-acre, fan-shaped garden with over 150 species of azaleas and rhododendrons. A pergola entrance welcomes visitors with a stone-seat wall and brick terrace that leads to a lawn shaded by oaks, magnolias, sycamores, daffodils, irises, crocuses and tulips. Come here to decompress after a long day of museum-hopping on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway or after exploring the nearby Schuylkill River Trail.
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Bartram’s Garden
America’s oldest botanical garden is also a favorite spot for boating, fishing and picnicking among skyline views. The 50-acre land on the Schuylkill River has more than 200 native plants — including the oldest living ginkgo tree in North America — alongside fragrant flower gardens, grasses and wildflowers. Community programs with African, Indigenous and local organizations involve orchard harvests, tree planting, seed exchanges and farming. Pro tip: Extend your outdoor adventure by walking or taking a bike ride along Bartram’s Mile Trail, which is part of the Schuylkill River Trail.
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Fame runs through Curtis Hall. Its French Renaissance-inspired estate is named after the Curtis Publishing founder, while Thomas Meehan of Bartram’s Garden (see above) and park designers The Olmsted Brothers contributed as garden architects to the 47-acre arboretum. There’s plenty to see here, from ponds and hills to vine-covered pergolas and 50-plus tree varieties. Bring a blanket, a lawn chair and snacks for a front-row seat to the free summer concert series, a fitting homage to Curtis’ daughter who founded the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music. Or let your dog roam free at the fenced-in dog park.
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Gardens at Independence National Historical Park
18th Century Garden— Photo courtesy National Park Service
Visiting historic public parks and gardens without leaving the city is a special feeling. The gardens that are part of Independence National Historical Park date back to the 18th century, stretching mainly along Walnut Street and Locust Street between 3rd Street and 4th Street. The Magnolia Garden was inspired by George Washington’s admiration for the tree and features 13 spring-blooming hybrid magnolias that represent each of the original colonies. Antique roses like “Old Bush” and green flower roses in the Rose Garden are showstoppers, only blooming once a year in June. With so much greenery around, people flock here for picnics, frisbee tossing and dog play, too.
Where: 18th Century Garden, 339 Walnut Street
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Rose Garden, 422 Walnut Street
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Opened to the public in 1976, this 46-acre Malvern property has nearly 5,000 individual plants across 1,500 varieties. Visitors get free access to many rare and unusual shrubs, endangered native plant specimens, flowering plants, wildflowers, azaleas and woodland trees. Walk or hike along ponds and streams and under tree canopies (all a mile or less) to see why original homeowners H. Lawrence and Elisabeth Phillippe Jenkins fell in love with the land.
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Laurel Hill and West Laurel Hill Cemeteries
— Photo by Visit Philadelphia
At Laurel Hill, 6,500 trees (including several state champions), seasonal foliage and flora planted across a 265-acre arboretum create a peaceful setting for walking these historic burial grounds. A large gatehouse flanks the entrance to Laurel Hill East on Ridge Avenue, where sweeping vistas of the Schuylkill River can also be found. Native plants intertwine with 19th-century mausoleums, Gothic-style chapels and Victorian gravestones. Stop by the Chapel of Peace English-style gardens to see a large custom iron trellis with climbing roses and the Gatehouse pollinator gardens with flowering perennials, or sign up for a “Sacred Stonework” tour to experience the grounds as a vast sculpture garden.
Where: Laurel Hill Cemerty, 3822 Ridge Avenue
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“Grupo Motivos” urban gardeners and farmers have been stewards of North Howard Street for decades, cultivating food, herbs and flowers for the community. Residents maintain individual plots on a half-acre to harvest crops native to Puerto Rican and West African cuisine that also reflect the neighborhood’s diaspora population. This city garden project is a wonderland despite its small footprint; it includes a butterfly garden, an outdoor kitchen, picnic tables and seating, a children’s play area, ceramics, replica structures and statuettes (Las Parcelas and Villa Africana Colobó), a ceremonial plaza (El Batey), and a Saturday community farm stand.
— Photo by R. Cardillo
The Meadowbrook Farm estate is home to over a dozen outdoor gardens across seven acres. There’s a lot to foster a mindful nature walk here: a pollinator garden, an herb garden, a cacti and succulent garden, a rain garden, and a rock garden, to name a few spots. Take advantage of the benches and courtyards to soak in the diversity of horticulture and water features, or sign up for an indoor gardening lesson to practice at home.
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Rodin Museum
— Photo by R. Kennedy for Visit Philadelphia
One of several gardens along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway’s “museum mile,” the Rodin Museum courtyard is one of the city’s best-kept secrets. Enter through Meudon Gates where you’ll see a central reflecting pool and cottage garden cloistered around the perimeter. It’s easy to feel swept away in these sun-kissed surroundings, especially when eight of the museum’s pieces dot the outdoor garden between perennials, bulbs, biennials and magnolias. On select days during the warm-weather season, the garden turns into a casual co*cktail bar.
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One Overbrook resident in 2005 took community gardening into her own hands with unused land from a 117-acre West Philly park. Royal Gardens in Morris Park is now a Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful affiliate park, and over the years, neighbors have tended to the land, planting perennial flower beds and cherry flower trees, as well as maintaining a vegetable garden. It’s a continually evolving do-it-yourself beautification project that’s best appreciated at the serenity garden, where visitors are prompted by self-improvement and reflective meditations.
— Photo courtesy Scott Arboretum of Swarthmore College
This 95-year-old property is a must-visit any time of the year as the 300 acres include plants and trees suited for all four seasons. The pollinator garden shines in the summer when birds, bees and butterflies gather. Lilacs peak in late spring, while hydrangeas bloom till the fall, and the winter garden is a lovely spot to smell jasmine and rose flowers. Plan for a multi-hour visit as there are 4,000-plus plant varieties to see, 90 of which have been awarded the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s Gold Medal Plant Award.
Widener University’s 30-acre reserve features meadows, trails, wildlife habitats and open fields that make for a nature-filled itinerary. The former industrial mill complex has transformed into a natural sanctuary of plantings with dogwoods, magnolias, apple trees, hollies and native regional plants available to see up close year-round, free of charge. Dog families love coming here to hike along Ridley Creek during warm-weather months, too.
Picture this: rolling hills and pond fountains; a three-story Spanish Revival-style mansion; and nearly 50 species of trees, including mature willows, oaks, maples, sycamores and 100-foot-tall 70-year-old Redwood-Dawn trees. That’s what to expect at this 49-acre public park, which is also filled with original plantings that date back to the early 1900s and influence on-site preservation and conservation efforts.
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The Woodlands Cemetery and Mansion
— Photo courtesy The Woodlands Cemetery and Mansion
Cradle graves are a legacy carried on by volunteers who beautify plots in this West Philly cemetery with small Victorian-era planter-style gardens. The 19th-century site — a resting place for some of Woodland Avenue’s most prominent residents — was designed by William Hamilton with English-style architecture and landscaping. It has since grown to 54 acres with stately mausoleums and roughly 1,000 living trees. Sign up for special “after dark” events to observe fireflies and pollinators and go on headstone hunts.
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23
Wyck House and Gardens
At Germantown’s Wyck, there are tons of natural treasures to discover. First, walk back in time on its 2.5 acres that are outfitted with Colonial and Victorian-era outbuildings (a carriage house, a greenhouse, an ice house and a smokehouse, to name a few), family-used objects dating over 300 years and the oldest rose garden in its original plan in America. There’s plenty more to soak up during your visit — a museum within the historic house, a farm and garden with perennial gardens, fruit trees, vegetables and herbs, and even a chicken coop.
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Sculpture Gardens
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Sculpture Gardens in Greater Philadelphia
Philadelphia museums excite year-round visits, bringing world-class artworks outside at these sculpture gardens:
- Woodmere Art Museum’s Outdoor Wonder features sculptures connected to nature and the local environment like the wave-shaped Free Interpretation of Plant Formsfountain sculpture by Harry Bertoia, Filippo Bermani’s steel bull and Steve Tobin’s Japanese calligraphy-inspired “roots” sculpture.
- Michener Art Museum rotates its sculpture collection, with many paying homage to the local landscape, including a large white steel piece reminiscent of dancing figures.
- Philadelphia Museum of Art’s one-acre Sculpture Garden spans an upper and lower terrace, two graveled galleries and a paved plaza with works on view like a sculpture of a whale’s tail by Gordon Gund.
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Tickets Required
Andalusia Historic House, Gardens and Arboretum
Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve
Chanticleer
Longwood Gardens
Morris Arboretum and Gardens
Shofuso Japanese Cultural Center
Tyler Arboretum
Free Entry
Awbury Arboretum
Azalea Garden
Bartram’s Garden
Gardens at Independence National Historical Park
Laurel Hill and West Laurel Hill Cemeteries
Norris Square Community Gardens
PHS Meadowbrook Farm
Rodin Museum
Royal Gardens
Scott Arboretum of Swarthmore College
Taylor Memorial Arboretum
Willows Park Preserve Arboretum
The Woodlands Cemetery and Mansion
Wyck House and Gardens
Sculpture Gardens
Sculpture Gardens in Greater Philadelphia
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