A Day of Beauty & Bargains in Berks County, PA –
Shop & Explore at Ryeland Gardens and Visit Four Private Gardens
in Womelsdorf, PA andArea

Enjoy a glorious garden-filled day in Berks County PA! Combine shopping at Ryeland Gardens with the opportunity to visit four of the area’s most amazing private gardens – and eat ice cream! Note: This is an expanded encore event prompted by the great reviews from members who attended in 2022. Gardens evolve, so join us again, or for the first time.

• Shop at Ryeland Gardens from 8:00 AM until 6:00 PM. All HPS/MAG members will receive a 10% discount on the event day. Be sure to identify yourself as an HPS/MAG member at checkout for this discount.
• Owner Dennis Hurst will treat you to a tour of the nursery and extensive display gardens as his time allows.
• Visit four unique nearby private home gardens; 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM.
• At one garden, enjoy the music of a folk style string quintet playing from the gazebo while you admire the garden. It should be great fun!
• Treat yourself to a stop at locally famous Twilight Acres. Enjoy sweet treats at their bakery and ice cream shop!

At Ryeland Gardens:

You may well have shopped at Ryeland Gardens at our March Into Spring and Fall Gardener’s Market events. Now you can shop in person to see all they offer in their extensive nursery, garden, and gift store. Owner Dennis Hurst will be on hand to answer all your garden questions and show you around. Here’s an update from Dennis on what we can expect to find at Ryeland.

Ryeland Gardens is a full-service retail nursery where you can find everything from small, greenhouse grown annuals to potted trees. We are focusing heavily on all things plants this year and going deeper into the houseplant category with an emphasis on unusual indoor plants and a selection of indoor bonsai. We also carry a variety of great miniature conifers, and we expect to have the first Traveler and Crossroads hemlocks available this fall courtesy of cutting stock from the National Arboretum.

You will find an excellent selection of stained concrete statuary from Unique Stone and Sandstone Gardens. We hope you enjoy the modifications to the new garden behind the pergola which now features a circular yard with a large birdbath at the center. We also built a matching pair of green roofs to keep our bagged mulch and soil dry, and they should be filling out nicely by late May.

Feel free to visit our website and have a look at our plant lists, but be warned, they are a mixture of optimistic and out of date. We do indeed have a lot of the plants that are listed there, but the list can be less than accurate. And, then there are always a number of unusual items, in very limited quantities, that don’t make the website. To discover these treasures, you will have to come and have a look! In addition to the nursery, visit the garden center stocked full of high-quality supplies, tools, and gardening accessories. And visit the gift shop for interesting garden décor, floral arrangements, and even beautiful paintings. Happy shopping!

Restrooms are available at Ryeland Gardens. Nearby Conrad Weiser Homestead Park (http://www.conradweiserhomestead.org/) has picnic tables for those who wish to bring their lunch.

Private Home Garden Visits:

From 10:00 AM until 2:00 PM you are invited to visit four of the area’s most amazing home gardens. These incredibly varied private gardens are located in nearby Mohrsville, Robesonia, Stouchsburg, and Womelsdorf.

• Enjoy a town garden that has slowly transformed into an informal garden for butterflies, pollinators, and birds. It is now a designated Monarch Way Station, a PA certified pollinator garden, and a certified Wildlife Habitat Garden.
• Explore a large country estate garden on a shady hillside of hostas and ferns. Relax and enjoy the pond and fancy ducks then enjoy the sculpted gardens. Take time to meander through the wooded wonderland of hidden treasures finding peeping gargoyles, sleeping dragons, and a “stairway to heaven” along the winding pathways.
• Visit a secret half shade/half sun garden that showcases unusual plants and collections of conifers, iris, hostas, great topiary, and many houseplants. Highlights include the two-story espaliered Pyrus calleryana (Bradford pear) and the rare Conifer collection.

Planning your day:

Ryeland Gardens is open from 8 AM until 6 PM. 

The 4 private gardens will be open for you to visit from 10:00 AM until 2:00 PM only.

Garden addresses and suggested routing will be e-mailed to all registrants shortly before the day of the event.

This is a Members Only event. It is free, but registration is required. This gives Dennis at Ryeland, and the private garden hosts, an estimate of how many members are planning to attend. No rain date is planned.

Registration will open on March 22. Click here to register. Registration closes May 20. Click here if you would like to become a member of HPS/MAG before registering for this event.

Contact: Dawn Freeman at [email protected]