Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Jerry Jackson

The tulips are fading fast at Baltimore's renowned Sherwood Gardens, but Sun photographer Jerry Jackson has captured them forever in his beautiful photo gallery.

Not to worry. The 80,000 tulips planted there keep on giving. Bring a shovel -- and a bag -- to the Guilford neighborhood garden on Saturday May 28 and help volunteers dig up the bulbs. You can buy as many as you like for a 30 cents a bulb. The dig starts at 7 a.m.

During the 1800s the property on which the Sherwood Gardens is located was part of the Guilford estate of A. S. Abell, founder of The Baltimore Sun. The site of the gardens was a pond, which was filled in when the area was developed for housing in 1912.

Sherwood Gardens was created in the 1920's by John W. Sherwood, local petroleum pioneer and conservationist. Begun as a hobby, and planted by Mr. Sherwood with tulips that he imported from the Netherlands, the gardens have become known as the most famous tulip garden in North America. 

Continue reading "The tulips at Baltimore's Sherwood Gardens" »

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Ms. Strahan, a retired attorney, learned what she knows about gardening in Master Gardener classes and classes at Longwood Gardens and by trial and error. But she also has the help of Michael Rosendale, who teaches horticulture at Community College of Baltimore County-Dundalk.

In Susan's post, there is a link to a much longer story about this garden, and the travels that have informed it.

And Susan also paid a photographic visit to Cylburn Arboretum, and shares some lovely September pictures.

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Photo courtesy of Dumbarton Oaks

Britt Conley writes one of my favorite garden photography blogs, The Photo Garden Bee, and she regularly features what passes for her backyard - Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C.

She visits the garden regularly for the peace it gives her, and she says she's featured it at least 16 times on her blog.

But I also love Britt's blog for her black and white photos of flowers that she posts daily. We are all into flowers for their color, but Britt's photos allow us to see them in a different way - as shape and structure.

Visit Britt's blog. And then take a cue from her and visit Dumbarton Oaks.

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Photo courtesy of Historic London Town

In the LIVE section of The Baltimore Sun today, I write about a pair of new tours at Anne Arundel County's Historic London Town, but visitors should also take time to see the gardens.

The Woodland Garden was created in the late 1960s and it has towering natives trees, a collection of magnolias, camellias, dogwoods, rhododendrons and viburnums, and hundreds of spring bulbs. There are paths that offer glimpses of the South River, and several gardens within the garden, which feature azaleas, hosta and winter interest plants - something for every season.

The Ornamental Gardens frame the River Deck and are often the setting for weddings  and other large gatherings. Plants are in bloom from March to October and there is a wide view of the South River.

Continue reading "The gardens of Historic London Town" »

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More than 300 acres have been planted with the happy blooms in Jarrettsville, Norrisville, White Hall and Madonna. 

Harford's fields are strikingly visible on well-traveled roads and seem to go on for miles.

Mary Gail advises that the most florid fields are at Jarrettsville Pike and Hess Road, Baldwin Mill Road at Route 23 and Route 439 about three miles east of Interstate 83.

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Photo courtesy of Longwood Gardens

Longwood Gardens, just across Maryland's border and into Pennsylvania, is a delightful garden destination. Now it is a destination on the web, too.

Longwood, about two hours from Baltimore in Kennett Square, Pa., has introduced a plant database which allows gardeners to search for plants, find out which plants are in bloom at Longwood at the moment,  scout out garden tours for a future visit and  find out more about particular garden features, such as the Acacia Passage, at Longwood.

I spent some time on the new Plant Explorer and my thought is, like most of these databases, you need to have a lot of information at your fingertips to narrow the search results. Otherwise, you might pull up a list of more than 100 plants through which to sort.

Continue reading "Longwood Gardens: a plant database" »

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Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Jed Kirschbaum

Garden Variety, wearing her newspaper hat, has written a couple of stories for The Baltimore Sun that you might enjoy.

The first is about Annmarie Garden, a gem of a sculpture garden in Southern Maryland which is showcasing some remarkable art that comments on our relationships with the environment. There are also some travel tips for your visit there.

And the second is about Annapolis craftsman Kevin Hurst and his remarkable, whimsical birdhouses. While you are there, a look at Jed Kirschbaum's wonderful photo gallery of Kevin's birdhouses.

And we offer some advice about other garden art that can find its way indoors.

Enjoy the reading!

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Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Susan Reimer

Unlike Debra Kerr in "An Affair to Remember," I was looking down.

I was all about the gardens during the garden bloggers meet-up in Buffalo. But others, like Debra Kerr and the Empire State Building, were looking up.

Christopher C, who writes Outside Clyde, a North Carolina garden blog, has posted wonderful pictures of the painted lady houses in Buffalo.

And Mr. McGregor's Daughter, who blogs from Chicago took time to notice the city's artistic and architecture.

Take a moment from your day and visit Buffalo.  

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It was raining.

And that was good news.

As part of Buffalo's Garden Walk, landscapers had remarkably and unselfishly volunteered their time and material to help transform a neighborhood.

When we visiting garden bloggers arrived, rain was blessing the hard work they had just completed.

North Parade Avenue in Buffalo was once grand, facing as it did a landscaped parkway designed by Frederick Law Olmsted.

But like so many urban neighborhoods, it is in decline and nowhere was that more evident than in the neglected front lawns and the huge and unsightly shrubs that nearly hid the houses.

Continue reading "Buffalo Garden Walk: a neighborhood make-over" »

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A gardener with only a tiny space in which to garden wastes none of it. That's certainly true of the gardeners of Buffalo's quaint Cottage District who will open their gardens to the public July 24-25 during the annual Garden Walk.

Seeing these alleys, I felt deprived because I don't have one to plant!

Photo credits: Baltimore Sun/Susan Reimer

Continue reading "Buffalo Garden Walk: alley gardens" »

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Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Susan Reimer

Garden Walk Buffalo has become a national sensation, drawing tens of thousands of visitors to the city and to its 350 open gardens during the last full weekend in July (July 24 and 25 this year). 

Indeed, the entire region seems to plant in order to peak during that weekend.

About 70 garden bloggers, invited by Garden Walk president Jim Charlier and local garden blogger and magazine editor Elizabeth Licata, got a sneak preview of Garden Walk last weekend --  beating the longs lines and the crowds -- and perhaps the most charming stop on our tour was the Cottage District and its small but abundant gardens.

The district is made up of tiny Civil War era cottages that were once rented to the factory workers. Now they are occupied by an eclectic mix of retirees, young professionals and artists, and each seems willing to try to outdo a neighbor when it comes to gardening.

Each of the tiny gardens is densely planted and filled with eye-catching art, planters and whimsy. And each includes a little spot to to sit, to talk or to entertain - albeit on a very small scale.

Take a tour of the Cottage District with me on Flickr.com. And return here often this week for more highlights from Garden Variety's visit to Buffalo.

Thanks to Garden Walk, I will never think of Buffalo as the snow capital of America again. It has been transformed for me into a gardening destination!

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Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Susan Reimer

Greetings from Buffalo, one of the best-kept secrets among garden cities in the country!

Gardening seems to have gone viral in this city, thanks to Garden Walk, an annual event that now opens 350 neighborhood gardens to perhaps 50,000 visitors each July: once someone in the neighborhood starts planting, everybody wants to garden!

Garden Walk doesn't actually begin until later this month, but I am here with about 70 garden bloggers for a sneak preview, and it has been extraordinary, and so much more than just cute houses and nice gardens!

I will be writing about what I have seen in the days ahead, and posting plenty of pictures. But the packed schedule doesn't permit much time at the computer during my stay.

In the meantime, friend me on Facebook, where I will be posting photos and mini-updates. And on Twitter and Twitpic, where I will also post photos.

And, put Buffalo and Garden Walk on your bucket list!

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Garden Variety departs today for Buffalo and a meet-up of some 70 garden bloggers and writers that happily coincides with the city's annual Garden Walk, which is becoming quite the sensation.

The self-guided tour of more than 350 gardens, in its third year, might be the largest of its kind in the country and last year more than 45,000 visited the gardens. It is such a success that it has been expanded to a month-loing event, with tours, seminars and concerts.

Garden writers, bloggers, authors and horticultural people from 22 states and Canada will be in Buffalo this weekend, and we will all be posting pictures and comments about the gardens we visit, beginning this evening at the home of host Elizabeth Licata, who writes for the popular Garden Rant blog.

You can follow my end-of-day posts here on Garden Variety, but I will also be posting photos on my Facebook page and Tweeting about what I see during the tours.  

www.facebook/susanreimer and http://twitpic.com/photos/SusanReimer.

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Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Gene Sweeney

The landscape plan for the restoration of the Eutaw Place median gardens in Baltimore City was designed by Carlo VanGrieken, who is an active member of the Bolton Hill Garden Club, which executed the restoration.

In the center bed, a blend of colors and textures are used that compliment the other blocks in the median but stand out from the rest. Hardy plants that grow well in an urban environment are used. For example, red Knockout roses are used  in other blocks. While Knockout roses were also the choice for this block, white and yellow were chosen, which are less commonly used.

The roses are complimented with crimson bayberry to add a touch of dark red. Perennial salvia was added for a touch of purple/green, and juniper bush were installed for texture – and the fact that it will eventually grow over the sides of the garden wall and will add a backdrop for the black-eyed Susans. Complimenting the black-eyed Susans is faux holly.

Continue reading "Eutaw Place gardens: the plantings" »

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Photo creditA: Baltimore Sun/Gene Sweeney

The fountain that is the centerpiece of the restoration of the Eutaw Place median gardens isn't the original.

That fountain was known as The Children's Fountain or the Centennial Fountain because it was purchased from the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876 for "much less" than the $9,000 cost of constructing it.

That fountain collapsed under the weight of ice and snow in the winter of 1945 and its pieces, along with the benches that surrounded it, were carted away. The removal of the benches was called "an indecency" by neighbors.

Continue reading "Eutaw Place gardens: the fountain" »

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Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Gene Sweeney

Eutaw Place in Baltimore City was once one of the grandest boulevards in the country, designed in 1854 with promenade gardens in the center and elaborate fountains and statuary. It was intended to resemble Paris' Champs Elysee and became a prototype for American landscaped parkways.

But Eutaw Place, and the surrounding Bolton Hill neighborhood, went through a period of decline in the 1950s and 1960s as the enormous single-family houses were broken up into apartments and families left the city.

Today, the neighborhood is on the upswing and an award-winning renewal of the Eutaw Place median gardens is evidence of that renewal.

Continue reading "Eutaw Place median gardens: an award-winning restoration" »

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Photo of Dendrobium Lindleyi courtesy of the U.S. Botanic Garden and Conservatory

There is a way to escape this Mid-Altantic winter and travel into exotica without purchasing a plane ticket.

The U.S. Botanic Garden, located at a subway stop in Washington, D.C., has some of its 5,000 orchid specimens on display from now until April 11.

There is more than just precious flowers in this show.

The Botanic Garden, in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution Horticultural Services Division, has created a "Cultural Odyssey" to help us understand the role orchids have played in the arts, literature, exploration, jewelry and commerce.

The show features a creature and a living wall, both made entirely of orchids.

The U.S. Botanic Garden Conservatory is open daily, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., weekends and holidays. There is no charge.  You can take the Metrorail Blue or Orange line to the Federal Center SW or Capital South stations,

Need more to inspire you to visit these amazing flowers?

Continue reading "Among the orchids" »

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