The Ladew Topiary Gardens, called “the most outstanding topiary garden in America” by the Garden Club of America is celebrating its 50th year as a public garden. Located in Monkton, MD., about 45 miles north of Baltimore and an hour south of Philadelphia, the gardens were founded by Harvey Ladew and boasts water features, statuary and hundreds of topiary. The gardens host almost 50,000 visitors a year who explore the gardens, tour the historic Manor House, learn about the mysteries of metamorphosis in the Butterfly House and enjoy the Nature Walk. The 22-acre garden showcases more than 100 remarkable topiaries are on display.
The Nature Walk, which opened in 1999 and was enhanced in 2019, offers visitors a natural landscape that provides an intentional contrast to the cultivated formal gardens. With pathways through a natural landscape, the walk serves as a living teaching aid for Ladew’s educational programming. Guests can experience the various wildlife habitats, which are particular to the Piedmont Plateau. In addition to educational signs along the one-mile trail, visitors enjoy a birdwatching blind, floating wetlands on the quarry pond, and a short boardwalk which threads through the wetland forest and freshwater marsh.
Opened in 2014 and the first of its kind in the region, the Butterfly House showcases native plants and the native butterflies and caterpillars that depend on them for food and shelter. It provides an up-close, educational experience of the natural history and life cycle of over 20 species of local butterflies and caterpillars.
www.ladewgardens.com
