Delaware Gardens

 Ashland Nature Center: Jct. of Brackenville and Barley Mill Roads, Hockessin, DE.

This Nature Center features a native plant garden with a variety of plants that provide food and shelter for wildlife, as well as four self-guiding nature trails on 200 acres of meadow, marsh, pond and forest. A wonderful mesh greenhouse Butterfly House is a complete ecosystem, containing water, shelter, food and host plants for each species.

 Delaware Center for Horticulture: 1810 N. Dupont Street, Wilmington, DE 19806-3308

 (302)658-6262.

A public agency promoting agriculture, the Center also has a stunning new glass-highlighted building with demonstration gardens emphasizing plants for urban and suburban sites.

 George Read House and Gardens: 42 The Strand, New Castle, DE 19720 (302)322-8411.

An 1801 14,000 square foot mansion built by one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, is graced by a 150 year old garden. The 1-1/2 acre garden has three sections: a formal parterre flower garden, a specimen garden of exotic and native favorites, and a large fruit orchard and kitchen garden with allees of pear trees and trellised grapes and formal boxwood hedges.

 Gilbraltar: (Scroll down) 1405 Greenhill Avenue, Wilmington, DE 19806 (302) 651-9617.

A Garden Conservancy garden. The grounds of this early 20th century estate now being restored by Preservation Delaware, Inc. include a formal Italian garden, a bald cypress allee, and an extensive collection of period garden ornaments.

 Hagley Museum and Library: Route 141 and Brandywine River, P.O. Box 3630,

 Wilmington, DE 19807 (302)658-2400.

230 acres of trees and flowering shrubs on the banks of the Brandywine River surround this museum on the site of the first Du Pont black powder works. Several restored buildings house exhibits and live demonstrations that give visitors a window into 19th life and work. Gardens include a formal French garden cultivated by E. I. du Pont.

 Josephine Gardens: Brandywine Park,  18th and Market Streets (Latitude 39 degrees N and 

 longitude 75 degrees W), Wilmington, DE 19899 (302-577-7020).

This lovely 178 acre park blends monuments, formal gardens, and natural forested areas with trails. Two features of interest are the Josephine Fountain, surrounded by a rose garden, and a Sensory Trail for visually-impaired visitors. The park gardens are maintained with the assistance of the Friends of Wilmington Parks. The Brandywine Zoo is located on 10 acres within the park.

 Mt. Cuba Center: Barley Road (4 mi. N of Route 141), Greenville, DE 19807-1507

 (302)239-4244

This 630 acre non-profit organization fosters an appreciation for the plants of the Appalachian Piedmont.  The extensive grounds feature azaleas on the South Terrace, tulips, delphiniums and chrysanthemums in the Round Garden, 25 cultivars of lilacs on the Lilac Path, native trees, shrubs and wildflowers in the Woods Path, Dogwood Path and West Slope Path, native grasses in the Meadow, and native shrubs, ferns and wildflowers in the Pond Garden.

 Nemours Mansion and Gardens: 1600 Rockland Road, P.O. Box 109, Wilmington, DE

 19899 (302)651-6912.

Built in 1910 by Alfred I. du Pont and named after an ancestral home in France, this 102 room Louis XVI-style chateau is surrounded by 300 acres of French-style gardens and natural woodlands.

 Rockwood Museum: 610 Shipley Road, Wilmington, DE 19809

 (302)761-4340.

The Estate grounds, created in the mid-1800s, feature a Gardenesque style, a naturalistic approach to landscape architecture. In addition to the extensive landscaping mixing native and exotic plants, the visitor will find a lovely walled rose garden (replacing a former kitchen garden), a Conservatory and the former owner's Pleasure Garden.

 University of Delaware Botanic Gardens: South Campus at the Dept. of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Townsend Hall, 531 S. College Avenue, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716 (302)831-0153.

A host of gardens make up the UD Botanic Gardens, including the Emily B. Clark Garden (among other mature plantings a dwarf conifer collection), the Worrilow Hall Garden, the Herbaceous Garden (annuals, perennials, ornamental grasses), the Fischer Greenhouse Garden (including the Meadow Garden), the Native Garden (Eastern U.S. plants), the South Greenhouse Garden, and the Townsend Hall Garden (including a Magnolia Society test garden). The web site has a listing of trees and shrubs in the Gardens.

 Winterthur Museum: DE 52, Winterthur, DE 19735 (302)888-4600 or (800)448-3883.

Henry Francis du Pont, former owner of this 966 acre estate, created this extraordinary 60 acre naturalistic garden, containing an Azalea Woods, Magnolia Bend, March Bank, Oak Hill, Peony Garden, Pinetum, Quarry Garden, Reflecting Pool, Sundial Garden, Sycamore Area, and a Winterhazel Area.