Native Plants Special Interest Group Event:
A Tour of Three Native Gardens in Pennsburg, PA 

Join us for a tour of three native plant gardens in close proximity to one another. Attendees will meet up at the host’s home to park and carpool. We will return to our host’s home after the first garden tour for a lunch break, then go on to tour the other two gardens.

Garden 1: This estate was founded in 1710, and the house (no access) is on the National Historic Register for its connection to the Underground Railroad and Harriet Tubman. It is notable for its English Country Garden style, its collection of over 100 hydrangeas, and its legacy tree collection, including magnificent magnolias, beeches, and dawn redwood. Several trees are noted as Pennsylvania champions and were planted in the early 1900s by DuPont family members who lived there, with help from Pierre DuPont of Longwood fame. There is also a pond, an orchard, and an allée of Princeton Elms, a named cultivar known for its disease resistance. We then return to the host’s house for a brown bag lunch.

Garden 2: This property of seven acres features rolling terrain, two springs feeding a pond and a stream, mature canopy trees, and specimen tree and shrub plantings. The owner has planted many trees and shrubs to create privacy and frame views. There is an extensive collection of young native trees and two native meadows, one 5 years old and one 2 years old, showing the natural succession of grasses and forbs. The lawn has been reduced to broad meandering walking paths among the changing vistas of meadow, forest, and rolling hills.

Garden 3 (host garden): This garden of roughly two acres features mostly native trees, a small conifer collection, several seeps and vernal ponds planted as rain gardens, and a stream garden. The focus of the tour here is a hike into the adjacent 20-acre woodlands to see forest stewardship in action via invasive alien plant removal and native sapling reforestation efforts. Light refreshments will be served after the short hike.

Attendees will meet up at the host’s garden (Garden 3) in Chadds Ford, PA (address to be provided to registrants) to carpool to Garden 1. Following a tour of Garden 1, we will return to the host’s garden for a brown bag lunch. After lunch, we will carpool to Garden 2 for a tour, then return to the host’s garden (Garden 3) for a tour. Light refreshments will be served at Garden 3 after the tour.

A restroom will be available at the host’s home at the beginning of the event, and after each garden tour.

Wear comfortable walking shoes, bring raingear, sunhat, umbrellas, sunscreen, bug juice, water, and a brown bag lunch and snacks.

This event is rain or shine with no alternative rain date. Dire forecasts or deluges will cancel the event.

This is a Members Only event. It is free but registration is required.

 Maximum number of participants is 20. This tour is full  contact Margaret Moore at: [email protected]; 914-960-1469 to be added to the waitlist.

Click here if you would like to become a member of HPS/MAG before registering for this event.

For more information, please contact Margaret Moore at: [email protected]; 914-960-1469.