Tour Four Private Bucks County Gardens Saturday

Tour four private gardens during a one-day event this Saturday.

The event is part of The Garden Conservancy’s Open Days Program for Bucks County, featuring locations in Doylestown, New Hope and nearby Stockton, N.J.

Open Days take place rain or shine, and no reservation is required for self-guided tours. Admission is $7 per garden; children 12 & under free.

Proceeds benefit The Garden Conservancy’s Open Days Program. Call 1-888-842-2442, or visit www.opendaysprogram.org for more information.

Details:

• At historic Fordhook Farm (105 New Britain Road, Doylestown), visitors can explore the research headquarters and home of W. Atlas Burpee & Co. A wide network of trial gardens on view highlight how new vegetables, annuals, and perennials are grown and evaluated to Burpee’s high standards of quality. Fordhook Farm is the birthplace of many culinary favorites including Golden Bantam, the first yellow sweet corn; the Big Boy tomato; Iceberg lettuce, and Fordhook lima bean. Once home to the Burpee family, the eighteenth-century farm has been designated a National Historic Site. A large collection of rare Asian and North American pines, cypress and false cypress also adorn the property. Fordhook also hosts a special event at 10:30 am, Digging Deeper: Pollinator-Savvy. W. Atlas Burpee & Co. gardening and horticulture expert, Venelin Dimitrov, will guide participants through Fordhook’s expansive bee-friendly gardens and present the crucial role that honey bees, butterflies, birds and other pollinators play in producing 75% of the world’s flowering plants, including those grown for food and seed.
• Paxon Hill Farm (3265 Comfort Road. New Hope) New to Open Days for 2015. Bucks County Open Day offers a rare chance to view the expansive private estates, featuring multiple gardens set among ten acres. Reflecting ponds, a woodlands walk, orchard, granite-edged parterre garden, weeping Tupelo tunnel, fountains, and an intimate courting garden are among the settings incorporated throughout the property. Visitors will also discover a yellow garden with bocce court; and swans, geese, peacocks and guinea fowl playfully roaming. Immense 330-foot double perennial borders lead to ten additional acres of public gardens.
• Bucks County Woodland Retreat ( 4860 Anderson Road, Doylestown) features two vintage limestone quarries, undulating hills, and an eighteenth-century converted barn residence. The site was transformed into a woodland garden with a hidden quarry, native plants, natural paths and garden sculptures, along with butterfly and pollinator gardens. A green-roofed addition has been added to cultivate four season interest. The property was developed by Barbara Geller, owner and landscape designer, and Robert Mitchell, a local artisan and builder.
• The Garden at Federal Twist (208 Federal Twist Road, Stockton NJ) offers a naturalistic, informal, hidden garden atmosphere. It showcases many large-scale perennials and grasses in the “new perennial” style of landscape designers like Piet Oudolf. Plantings emphasize structure, shape, and form. The garden began an experiment to explore the potential for working in unimproved, heavy clay. Ecologically, the space mimics a wet prairie and is maintained by cutting and burning in late winter. Flowers and butterflies abound. Two small ponds attract hundreds of frogs, insects and wildlife. A plant sale from specialty growers Broken Arrow Nursery will take place at this location; and staff from Organic Plant Care of Frenchtown, NJ, will be on hand to educate on plants and trees, soil.