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Gardens It's only fitting that the Fairmount Park, home to America's first botanist (John Bartram), has a wonderful collection of flora and fauna. Below, you'll find a list some of the Park's gardens for your viewing pleasure. Any would be a great place to have a picnic, read a book or just sit back and relax.
Azalea Garden Come experience this picturesque gateway to Fairmount Park's famous Boathouse Row area. One of the most popular public spaces in the Philadelphia area, it attracts families, recreational walkers and garden lovers. Countless wedding ceremonies too have been set against its beautiful backdrop. In 1952, the Azalea Garden was donated to Fairmount Park. Since 1989 it has been restored on several occasions with joint partnerships involving the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and the Fairmount Park Commission. Located on the magnificent grounds of Philadelphia's Museum of Art, it's Philadelphia's most recognized garden with over four acres of luminous plantings. 150 different species of azaleas and rhododendrons intermingle with irises, tulips, sycamores, oaks and hundreds of blooming annuals and perennials just a pathway away from the nearly completed Water Works revitalization.
Bartram's Garden Bartram's Garden contains the National Historic Landmark house and garden of America's first native born botanist John Bartram (1699-1777). The historic botanic garden covers eight of the site's 45 acres. Sloping gently from the house down to Schuylkill River, the garden provided Bartram with optimal growing conditions for the vast number of North American plants he collected on his travels across the length and breadth of Eastern North America in the 18th Century. In addition to several trees dating from the Bartram's day, the garden includes recreations of Bartram's Common Flower Garden, Kitchen Garden, Water Garden, and collection of Medicinal Herbs. It is truly a hidden gem in Philadelphia and a place of uncommon tanquility and beauty.
Glendinning Rock Garden Borrowing its name from benefactors Robert and Elizabeth Glendinning, the Glendinning Rock Garden is just north of the Girard Avenue bridge on Kelly Drive. You'll recognize it by a cluster of boulders. Further on into the garden you'll see a meandering pond which leads to a gentle waterfall. Perfect for reading, picnicking, or generally relaxing, the garden can provide a more tranquil alternative to the activity on the River path.
Horticulture Center No matter the season, the Horticulture Center has a fine selection of plants for you to enjoy. During warm weather, enjoy the ten-acre, gated arboretum surrounding the Center. Take in the majestic trees of Asian, European, and North American origin, dating back to the 1876 Centennial Exhibition. On the grounds, you can see a summer flowering bulb garden, perennial gardens, a Butterfly garden, a Japanese maple collection, display gardens, and a street tree arboretum. If spring hasn't yet sprung and you're in desperate need for an antidote to your cabin fever, visit the tropical garden, fountains and sculptures in the Horticulture Center's exhibition greenhouse.
Japanese House and Garden Take a stroll around the garden and feel yourself relax. Designed by Sano Tansai, the lush garden is both beautiful and historical. Existing landscape elements are incorporated into a sixteenth-seventeenth century style garden with a high wall border and a wooden gate entryway. The grounds feature a wooden bridge, stone pagoda, and pond filled with brightly-colored koi (Japanese carp fish) that you may feed. Great care has been taken in the layout, landscaping, and cultivation in order to create in a limited space the impression of depth and grate scale. |
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| PLACES TO GO | |