My students and I had a wonderful time photographing gardens in the Philadelphia area this month during my early May workshop. We visited six gardens in six days – everything from historic gardens to native plant gardens to pleasure gardens. I thought I’d share a few of my photos from the week with you today.
The first garden we visited was Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square. I’ve been visiting Longwood and until this year had never managed to see the wisteria in bloom. During the workshop, it was in full bloom and it was worth the wait.
Wisteria ©2019 Patty Hankins
Next we headed to Bartram’s Garden along the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia. In some ways Philadelphia’s great gardening tradition started with John Bartram in the mid-1700’s. The gardens at his home have been restored to showcase the types of plants he would have grown. On our visit, we found some spectacular late blooming Gloria Nigram tulips to photograph.
Gloria Nigram Tulips © 2019 Patty Hankins
At Winterthur Museum and Gardens in Delaware, azaleas and rhododendrons were the stars of the garden during our visit.
Rhododendron © 2019 Patty Hankins
The wildflower display at Mt. Cuba Center, also in Delaware, was amazing. There were so many different wildflowers in full bloom, the highlight for me were the Yellow Lady’s Slippers.
Lesser Yellow Lady’s Slipper – Cypripedium parviflorum © 2019 Patty Hankins
Chanticleer Garden in Wayne lived up to its reputation as a pleasure garden. Everywhere we looked, we saw and photographed beautiful combinations of flowers including beds with these allium and columbine.
Columbine & Allium at Chanticleer Garden © 2019 Patty Hankins
We ended the week at Jenkins Arboretum in Devon. Once again, we found a garden where azaleas and rhododendrons were the highlights of the garden.
Rhododendron © 2019 Patty Hankins
I’m still editing my photos from the workshop so it may be a while before you get a chance to see all the wonderful flowers I photographed. If you’d like to see my photos from the trip and other visits to gardens in the Philadelphia area, check out my Gardens of Philadelphia pinterest board. You’ll quickly see why Philadelphia is known as America’s Garden Capital.
My Gardens of Philadelphia pinterest board is at https://www.pinterest.com/pattyhankins/gardens-of-philadelphia/