Calling the winter weary and those with spring fever: find seeds of inspiration in a first-ever coffee table book on Philadelphia’s private gardens.
Calling all flower enthusiasts and gardeners, I have a beautiful new book to share and dig into:
Private Gardens of Philadelphia, releasing March 12th, 2024
by Nicole Juday (Author), Rob Cardillo (Photographer)
The Philadelphia region is home to an almost mystifying number of excellent gardens, both public and private. With a history of ornamental gardening going back more than 300 years, Philadelphians take pride in the tradition of horticulture readily visible today in the sizable number of public gardens, esteemed horticulture schools, and the largest flower show in the country.
In Philadelphia and its surrounding counties, the reader will visit 21 private gardens behind tall hedges, down quiet lanes, or tucked into bustling neighborhoods. Here, gardening knowledge and plants themselves have been passed down through generations, culminating in a wonderful depth of expression from the artists, designers, writers, conservators, and other experts whose gardens are included.
These gorgeous private gardens are products of years of hard physical labor; financial tradeoffs; responding to constant threats of damage by tornados, floods, deer, unwanted development; and random acts of God. Each garden, including the grandest, operates within some combination of challenging constraints. But as all gardeners know, constraints are necessary to push the limits of resourcefulness and creativity.
Generously sized, with 320 pages and no shortage of beautiful photos, there is plenty of flower therapy
and seeds of inspiration for those who have spring or garden fever!
Philadelphia is known as the ‘northernmost Southern city and the southernmost Northern city’.
I was surprised to learn that Philadelphia is zone 7b when I checked the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map;
not such a different growing region than our 8a zone garden in North Carolina,
which was previously slotted as 7b, before the USDA map update in 2023.
Don’t these mophead hydrangeas make you swoon?
I love that they amended the soil so that they are blue on the left and pink on the right,
the perfect contrast of colors in the world of bigleaf hydrangeas.
And what a fun and colorful idea to create a checkerboard garden with
alternating squares of red, white and purple annuals!
This meadow of wildflowers is that much more beautiful captured with the morning mist in the air.
Author Nicole Juday’s career has encompassed many areas of horticulture, including her own garden design business, working as Landscape Curator at Wyck Historic Garden, and running the Arboretum School at the Barnes Foundation. She then served as Director of Audience Engagement at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, where she created content and programming to inspire gardeners everywhere. A Chanticleer Scholarship allowed Nicole to pursue an interest in garden writing, and she has gone on to publish numerous articles, winning a silver medal for her writing by the Garden Writers Association. She speaks frequently on various gardening topics. When not spending time in her own garden with friends and family, she enjoys volunteering on local beautification efforts and lives in Philadelphia.
Rob Cardillo has been photographing gardens, plants, and the people who love them for thirty years. He has been credited as the primary photographer for over twenty-five books, including Private Edens, The Private Gardens of South Florida, The Art of Gardening, and The Layered Garden. Rob’s work is also seen in publications such as Gardens Illustrated, Garden Gate, Flower, and The New York Times. He is a founding partner of Blue Root Media and provides editorial content for GROW, the award-winning magazine of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.
“As a dependable rule, gardeners are extremely generous. They are quick to share plants, provide advice and encouragement, loan tools, and help with hard labor. Most gardeners are spurred by the desire for what they’ve created to be enjoyed by others – friends, family, or just passersby. The people who have graciously shared their gardens for this book, helped to make this infectious culture of generosity, even more durable. We hope that readers will feel the spirit and its pages and be inspired to pass it on.”
Gibbs Smith Books has provided me a copy of Private Gardens of Philadelphia
to give away to one reader.
For a chance to win a copy, leave a comment and share what has been your biggest
gardening challenge and / or your favorite garden flower to grow.
🌷 🌹 🌻
This giveaway is open to those living in the continental U.S. through midnight March 11th.
Private Gardens of Philadelphia is available for pre-order and releases March 12th, 2024.
Thank you to Gibbs Smith Books for providing a copy of Private Gardens of Philadelphia for my review and giveaway.
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