Early American Garden Resources and Destinations

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This is the resource list for "Early American Gardens: Designs and Destinations" first presented at the Philadelphia Flower Show on February 28, 2026. My intention is to have this resource as complete as possible by April 1st - which I view as the unofficial start of garden touring season in the mid-Atlantic. While most of the 40 gardens in "America's Garden Capital" are year-round, those that are seasonal generally open from April 1 until frost. While I am thorough in my research and garden visiting, I expect friends and colleagues (near and far) will make recommendations to add to these lists and I'll come up witn new categories as I develop additional lectures, tours and workshops. Please feel free to email recommendations through the Contact form. Thanks!

The Brother Gardeners: Botany, Empire and the Birth of an Obsession, Wulf (2008) 

Founding Gardeners: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American Nation, Wulf (2011)

Flowers and Herbs of Early America, Griffith (2008)

The Pleasure Gardens of Virginia: from Jamestown to Jefferson, Martin (2017)

The Philadelphia Country House: architecture and landscape in Colonia America, Reinberger and McLean (2015)

American Home Landscapes: a design guide to creating period style gardens, Adams and Birchfield (2013)

American Gardens in the Eighteenth Century, Leighton (1976)

McMahon’s American Gardener, M’Mahon (1806, 1976)

Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants seeds and plants sold through the Monticello Shop

Burpee (offering four seed bundles specifically created for the 250th celebration) 

The Roughwood Center for Heritage Seedways (Dr. William Woys Weaver, 5000 heirloom seed varieties) 

Brent and Becky’s,(100 years in the bulb business) 

Andalusia Historic House, Garden and Arboretum, Bucks County

Bartram’s Garden, Southwest Philadelphia 

Benjamin Rush Medicinal Plant Garden, at The College of Physicians of Philadelphia

Goodstay Gardens at the University of Delaware (Wilmington Campus)

Grumblethorpe, Germantown, Philadelphia

Morven Museum and Garden (Princeton, NJ)

Pennsbury Manor, Bucks County

Stenton, Germantown, Philadelphia

The 18th Century Garden at Independence National Historic Park Philadelphia

The Benjamin Rush Garden Independence National Historic Park Philadelphia

The Physic Garden at Pennsylvania Hospital, Philadelphia

Wyck Historic House, Garden and Farm, Germantown, Philadelphia

Colonial Williamsburg (Virginia)

"Founding Gardeners" Presidential Landscapes:

George Washington’s Mount Vernon, Northern Virginia

The Old House at Peacefield - Adams National Historical Park, Quincy, MA

Thomas Jefferson's Monticello Charlottesville, VA

In Bloom at Monticello 

Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest Lynchburg, VA

(While in Lynchburg, also visit the  Home and Garden of Harlem Renaissance poet Anne Spencer)

James Madison's Montpelier Montpelier Station, VA