1. Longwood Gardens
Kennett Square
Find unparalleled beauty at Longwood Gardens, widely recognized as one of the world’s premier horticultural masterpieces. Located near Philadelphia and Lancaster, the garden’s 1,050 acres of natural woodlands, majestic gardens, opulent conservatories, and dancing fountains are open every day of the year, but spring — when an almost countless number of tulips, crocuses, winter aconite, daffodils, and other spring beauties blanket the grounds and flowering trees and shrubs burst with color — is when the garden is arguably at its blooming best. Reservations and timed tickets are often required to ensure you will have the best possible experience.
2. Bartram’s Garden
Philadelphia
Surrounded by Philadelphia’s urban bustle, Bartram’s Garden is America's oldest living botanical garden and a must-see destination for plant lovers and history buffs alike. Dating back to the early 1700s (and one of only a handful of identified prehistoric sites in Philadelphia — think 5000 years prehistoric!), the garden’s 45 acres of parkland, wildlife habitats, tidal wetlands, and reclaimed meadow bloom with beautiful native and exotic plants. While the grounds are free and open to the public year-round, for a true appreciation of John Bartram’s vision and place in history as America’s first botanist, take a guided tour of the house and garden.
3. Brandywine River Museum of Art
Chadds Ford
Combining a love of art and commitment to its natural surroundings, the Brandywine River Museum of Art is surrounded by wildflower gardens in glorious color from spring through autumn. The gardens are meant to preserve, protect, and share the nation’s artistic, natural, and historical resources, principally of the Brandywine region, by featuring and nurturing the growth of plants native to the area throughout its entire campus and with various educational programs throughout the year.
4. Wyck
Philadelphia
Wyck, a National Historic Landmark house, garden, and farm, is a mainstay of Philadelphia’s Germantown neighborhood. Home to nine generations of the same Quaker family from 1690 to 1973 when it was opened to the public, the 2.5-acre property is literally a time capsule with 100,000 family papers and more than 10,000 family objects. However, the true gem is the rose garden — the oldest in the entire U.S. still growing in its 1821 original plan with several roses growing from the original root stock. Visit during the annual Celebration of the Roses to enjoy garden tours, lectures, and several vendors.
5. Graver Arboretum of Muhlenberg College
Allentown
The Lee and Virginia Graver Arboretum of Muhlenberg College was a true labor of love created by nature lovers and conservationists, Dr. Lee A. Graver, a professor at Muhlenberg College, and his wife Virginia. They spent 40 years clearing briars and brush to provide a 63-acre refuge and environment where wildflowers, ferns, rhododendrons, and native and rare trees, including more than 150 species of conifers, could grow and thrive. The arboretum is open to the public to enjoy its inviting trails and find a quiet place to relax and reflect, while also serving as an outdoor classroom for the college’s students.
6. Rose Garden Park
Bethlehem
Bethlehem’s Rose Garden Park is a feast for the senses with more than 100 varieties of fragrant flowers and a bandshell hosting a series of free concert performances in summer. The centerpiece of the park is its historic rose garden, which is in the process of being restored to its original 1931 layout that featured hundreds of roses planted in four color-coded quadrants of red, pink, yellow, and white grouped into an oval. Explore the park and garden and enjoy the shade of the nearly 100 year old sycamore trees lining the park and surrounding boulevards.
7. Malcolm W. Gross Rose Garden
Allentown
Well-known for its All America Rose Selections, Allentown’s Malcolm W. Gross Rose Garden offers an almost fairytale experience with rose-covered trellises, breathtaking flower beds, and a sparkling white gazebo. Stroll along the 1.3-mile path to enjoy all the botanical beauty, along with ponds filled with dazzling water lilies, and it’s easy to see why the garden has been the setting for countless wedding, prom, and other special occasion pictures over the past several decades.
8. Liberty Forge Arboretum
Mechanicsburg
A registered member of the American Public Gardens Association, Liberty Forge Arboretum offers a sense of solitude and beauty. Nestled among the rolling terrain of the golf course, the professionally landscaped gardens offer splashes of color and fragrance among ponds and fountains. The property dates back to late 1700s when it was an iron forge and farm.
9. Hershey Gardens
Hershey
Hershey is more than just yummy chocolate treats and fun amusement rides, but also a plant lover’s dream destination. Providing 23 acres of horticultural splendor, Hershey Gardens’ spectacular seasonal displays, theme gardens, and the stunning Milton and Catherine Hershey Conservatory and tropical Butterfly Atrium are a true delight. The historic rose garden, which dates back to 1937, is a definite highlight and simply breathtaking, especially when the more than 3,000 delightful roses representing 115 varieties of Hybrid Tea, floribunda, shrub, and miniature roses are in bloom.
10. Pittsburgh Botanic Garden
Oakmont
With woodlands, theme gardens, and an award-winning lotus pond, the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden celebrates the beauty of the Allegheny Plateau landscape and life in harmony with nature. Opened to the public in 2015, the garden is a true renaissance story as hundreds of acres of land damaged by decades of deep-mining, strip-mining, and clear cutting have been transformed into a botanical oasis. Explore the outdoor splendor along miles of groomed trails, the ADA-accessible Garden of the Five Senses, the Dogwood Meadow, Hillside Pollinator Garden, and the Heritage Homestead, a restored 1784 log house.
11. Chatham College Arboretum
Pittsburgh
Located a bit west of Pittsburgh’s downtown and northeast of Schenley Park and the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens lies a little gem of an arboretum on the Shadyside campus of Chatham University. The 32-acre Chatham College Arboretum, one of the key stops on the Pittsburgh Garden Trail, features 115 different varieties of trees, including Japanese Flowering Crabapple, River Birch, the Kentucky Coffee tree, and 11 maple trees. You can take a leisurely stroll admiring the soaring treescape that surrounds you or download their Tree Guide and Walking Map to help you identify the various trees you encounter.
12. Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens Inc.
Pittsburgh
Your olfactory receptors will be going full throttle this spring with a trip to the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Pittsburgh at its spring flower show, “A Closer Look,” where you’re invited to literally go “nose-to-petal” with thousands of aromatic lilies, tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, and many other spring favorites — all set within whimsical themed displays. The spring show is from Mar. 16-Apr. 14, but visit the conservatory and botanical gardens any time of year for a feast for the senses!
13. Tyler Arboretum
Media
Ready for a real workout and view of some beautiful flowers? Visit the 650-acre Tyler Arboretum where you’ll find manicured gardens, woodlands, wetlands, and meadows all decked out in their blooming beauty. The arboretum offers 17 miles of trails ranging from the family-friendly to the far more challenging, with some steep hills passing by the property’s historic ruins. Their ADA-compliant Scenic Loop and paths in the Wister Rhododendron Garden, along with the ADA-accessible Thoreau’s Cabin, Fort Tyler, and Tulip Tree House guarantee all can enjoy nature’s splendor.
14. Erie Zoo Gardens
Erie
Animals aren’t the only thing you’ll see at the Erie Zoo! Their beautifully landscaped grounds contain more than 2,500 specimens representing 600 species of plants at the Erie Zoo Gardens. Stroll along the zoo’s walkways adorned with a variety of plants and along with visiting your favorite critters housed at the zoo, enjoy their various gardens, including the Kiboka Outpost where the rhinos roam, the Model Train, Adventure, and Children’s Gardens, the Erie Bicentennial Garden, and the zoo’s other themed gardens, each with its own unique collection of plants and trees.
15. Lake Erie Arboretum at Frontier Park (LEAF)
Erie
Gardens aren’t the only place to see beautiful spring flowers. Many types of trees also get in on the action with beautiful flowers adorning their branches and peeking out among the trees’ spring green leaves. The Lake Erie Arboretum at Frontier Park (LEAF) in Erie invites you to walk amid its more than 800 shade, flowering and evergreen trees, stroll along its pathways, and enjoy the beauty of Cascade Creek. You also can see a variety of early spring plants at the arboretum’s Benjamin Winter Garden.
16. Marywood University Arboretum
Scranton
Located in one of Scranton’s historic residential neighborhoods, the spacious and beautiful campus of Marywood University is home to the Marywood University Arboretum, a perfect place for a quiet nature walk with its variety of tree, flowers, and plants. You can also partake of a variety of events offered throughout the year including educational activities, community workshops, and special tours and events.
17. Historic Arboretum at Penn State Mont Alto
Mont Alto
On Arbor Day 1905, students from the Pennsylvania State Forest Academy searched for native tree species not found on the campus and brought back and planted more than 400 specimens representing 30 species. Over the decades, these original plantings were augmented with seeds from other trees native to the U.S. and from throughout the world and today comprise the Historic Arboretum at Penn State Mont Alto. A training ground for students as well as a research site for the development of new hybrids, the arboretum is welcoming to all to stroll by its majestic trees.
18. Renziehausen Park Rose Garden & Arboretum
McKeesport
Affectionately called “Renzie Park” by local residents, the nearly 260-acre Renziehausen Park is home to a heritage center, wading pool, tennis courts and sports fields, a bandshell, hockey court, concession stand, and various pavilions, but the true star of the entire park is the 3.5-acre Rose Garden, the second largest rose garden in Pennsylvania. The garden features close to 2,000 simply stunning roses, along with perennials beds, herb garden, butterfly garden, and water pond, and is the perfect spot to spend a long afternoon surrounded by all the botanical beauty.
19. Chanticleer Garden
Wayne
Dating back to the early 20th century, the land surrounding the Chanticleer estate was originally developed as a way for the well-to-do to escape the heat of Philadelphia. Today, the estate boasts what has been called the most romantic, imaginative, and exciting public garden in America. With thousands of plants on 35 acres ranging from lush green lawns to hardy perennials, there’s something for everyone to enjoy at this breathtaking city escape. The gardens and property are open from early spring through late fall. Parking is limited so plan to reserve a spot before you go.
20. Bowman’s Wildflower Preserve
New Hope
See beautiful snow trillium, trout lily, spring beauty, Dutchman’s breeches, bluebells, wood poppy, and a myriad of Pennsylvania’s other native wildflowers in spring and other beautiful native plants throughout the year when you visit Bowman’s Wildflower Preserve. Explore the grounds on your own (open daily from April through June and select days other times of year), or take a guided tour, offered April through October on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays (depending on naturalist availability), to learn about the plants you spy and the preserve’s other natural wonders.
21. The Arboretum at Penn State
University Park
While it may come as a surprise to Nittany Lion fans, the Arboretum at Penn State and H.O. Smith Botanic Gardens offer ten acres of floral beauty, with an additional 340 acres in the process of being transformed including fields and woodlands. Be sure to stop in the Childhood’s Gate Children’s Garden that’s based on the area’s geology — complete with a wading stream, cave and hidden passageway big enough for kids and grown-ups. In spring, the Marilyn Quigley Gerhold Wildflower Trail is a must-visit. With all this beauty, it’s no wonder the arboretum has proven to be a popular venue for weddings and other events.
22. Keithan’s Bluebird Gardens
Sunbury
Located on a 1.5-acre tract along Sunbury’s riverside, Keithan's Bluebird Gardens still contains some of the exotic trees that Charles Keithan imported from around the world, as well as representative species of two of his favorite plants - azaleas and rhododendrons.
23. Goodell Gardens and Homestead
Edinboro
A beautiful bequest by sisters Carrie and Margaret Goodell, the 80-acre Goodell Gardens and Homestead showcases their love of nature and horticulture with gorgeous gardens and accredited arboretum filled with the sisters’ beloved rhododendrons and azaleas and more than 60 species of trees, including a rare Ben Franklin Tree and equally rare and once thought to be extinct, Dawn Redwood. A beautiful variety of roses and herbs are on display in the Welcome Garden, while the Heritage Garden is brimming with native plants and the Pollinator-Friendly Demonstration Garden boasts nectar-rich and host plants.
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