If you haven’t been to the Delaware Botanic Gardens yet, or haven’t been there for the spring bulbs, now is your chance!  Join Director of Horticulture Stephen Pryce Lea for a special “Spring Bulbs” Tour just for Chesapeake Forum at the Delaware Botanic Gardens in Dagsboro, DE.  Listening to him describe the flourishing plants around him brings to mind Henry David Thoreau’s journal entry from August 1851: “The question is not what you look at, but what you see.”  He sees enchantment and beauty everywhere he looks on the former soybean farm that is being developed into a masterpiece.

The tour will start off in the world-renowned Piet Oudolf two-acre meadow with nearly 170,000 spring-flowering bulbs and 70,000 perennial plants and grasses. After Stephen tells us the story of the world-renowned Piet Oudolf two-acre meadow, docents will then split us up into smaller groups in order to best explore the spring-flowering bulbs.

The other areas to see on your visit:

• The Folly Garden features the original homestead of the farm with 40,000 flowering bulbs, annuals, perennials, shrubs, and trees as well as a new reflecting pool.
• Endangered and restored habitats such as the non-tidal freshwater wetland and learning garden, vernal ponds, and a re-created ancient inland dune biome.
• Abundant butterflies, birds, and other pollinators in the bright and prolifically blooming Rhyne Garden, a part of a package of environmentally sustainable initiatives that also features an award-winning living shoreline, a rain garden, and green technology bathrooms.
• The Charles Anderson Family Holly Tree Collection and the Azalea Collection.

What to Expect:  The tour starts at 10 am from the Botanic Garden Visitor’s Center (30220 Piney Neck Rd, Dagsboro, DE) and will last approximately 1.5 hours. It is a walking tour with ADA-compliant pathways. If you need a golf cart, we can reserve one that holds three guests plus the driver.  Registration includes park admission and tour charges.  If heavy rain/high winds or thunder and lightning cause cancellation, we will reschedule to another date.

Meet at the Visitor’s Center at 10 am, or meet at the carpool staging area at the vacant bank parking lot in front of the Easton Target, leaving at 8 am.  Our tour is from 10 to 11:30 am.  It takes approximately 1.5 hrs to drive there.  

Stay for a local-color lunch (pay as you go) at Porto Grill, just down the road at 33168 Main St, Dagsboro, DE 19939.

Feedback from our past visit:

“Stunningly beautiful.  I loved the horticulturist’s deep dive into a lot of the details.

“What a wonderful tour we had with the chief horticulturalist.  It was so interesting and the garden is beautiful.  Very fun!”

“Had a wonderful time!   Beautiful day and a great tour!  Learned a lot.  So happy to get to see the meadow in all its Fall splendor.  The design techniques inspired me!”

FIELD TRIP by car/carpool | 1 session | Friday | April 19 | 10 am to 11:30 am | $35