Exploring Gardens & Green Spaces: From Connecticut to the Delaware Valley

Book excerpt: An illustrated guidebook to a rich array of 148 designed landscapes along the Northeast Corridor. Nestled all along the northeast corridor, a profusion of horticultural gems and designed landscapes beckons visitors, from celebrated formal parks, estates, and arboretums to less familiar—and often hard to find—gardens. This unique guidebook features 148 of them, providing readers with an incomparable resource for locating and exploring the region’s green spaces—many with historic homes at their center. Whether large, sumptuous, and impressively maintained, or modest in size, budget, and staff, all have distinctive historical, artistic, and horticultural offerings that make them well worth a trip. Mt. Cuba Center and Winterthur in Delaware, Longwood Gardens in southeastern Pennsylvania, Grounds for Sculpture and the Leonard J. Buck Garden in New Jersey, the Humes Japanese Stroll Garden on Long Island, Stonecrop Gardens and Innisfree in the Hudson Valley, and Elizabeth Park and Hollister House in Connecticut are just a few of the great gardens highlighted. Featuring more than three hundred color photographs and twenty-nine maps, with a fund of practical information for each entry—including transportation, nearby eateries, and other sites of interest, Exploring Gardens and Green Spaces is a veritable tour guide at your fingertips, showcasing an array of gardens that await discovery.