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.
THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.
Congratulations to Debbie J!
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Love the images. My favorite plants are Salvia because they are draught resistant thrive even in my harsh desert environment
What a beautiful book. Since being retired, I’ve been trying my hand at vegetable and flower gardening. I’ve had great success with lantanas which draw hummingbirds. It’s very peaceful watching pollinators come to these blooms. This year I’m starting zinnias from seeds. So hopefully it will go well. Thank you for such beautiful and inspiring posts Mary.
Oh my! What a gorgeous drool worthy book! One I would thoroughly enjoy!!
My biggest challenge in gardening is deer! They will eat just about anything I plant … even “deer proof” plants. I live in the heart of town, just two blocks off a main street yet we are overrun with deer.
Mary, this is truly a lovely book. I don’t have much of a green thumb but I do enjoy my rose garden. Roses have always been a garden necessity! Our garden is enclosed by our pool so not much to bother them. The rest of the yard though is over run with deer, squirrels, foxes, rabbits and crows!!
This book, as well as your garden pictures, inspires me to try my hand!
My biggest challenge is my narrow, rock covered backyard. We recently moved to our new home in a 55+ community. Unfortunately the yard is covered in rock with one lone tree off the patio. Fortunately, there is an in-ground watering system. It has never been used. So we’ll see if it is in working order this spring. I’ve spent this winter figuring out how to change this space into something more to my liking. Wish me good fortune.
My biggest challenge is the ever-hungry deer. Many heartbreaking days where I encounter an eaten plant that they are not supposed to like. If it is not eaten to the ground I try to think of is as free pruning. UGH. But they are beautiful animals. Right now I am loving my Lenten Roses! And wow yes what an amazing book!
Our deer problem is atrocious too – can’t really have much of a garden of color. It is maddening. We try but those deer have no natural predators anymore and no population control at all – we had 11 of a herd of them foraging in the back yard the other day. And we live in the suburbs. My younger daughter lives in the CITY and has a deer problem. It’s really gotten out of control. These deer have no fear of people, either. They are so brazen they stand 2 feet away from us!!!!!!
What a gorgeous book, Mary, and a great opportunity for visual delight for readers! I was surprised to learn that Philly is zone 7b, but I follow a gardener blogger on the south side of Long Island and was very surprised to learn her zone is 7a, like mine!
I am so excited for my peonies coming up, but my iris still hold a special place as a favorite for me because they’re generations old and passed along, smell so good, and are so reliable.
What a beautifully done book. I was born and raised in suburban Philadelphia and visited Longwood gardens every summer. At that time all I was interested in was the nightly fountain show. I haven’t been there in many years. This book brings back memories of that time. I now live on a peninsula known as Virginia’s Eastern Shore. The challenges here are many yet also few. Farmlands surround me, so we do have fertile soil. I moved into my waterfront home 4 years ago, it was a very neglected property that also showed that at sometime there was garden love shown. My challenge has been how to deal with azaleas and camellias that have gotten out of control. I have created a few little beds here and there and in one challenging location (over a septic system near the front door!), I have found that a sea of Zinnias each summer make a welcoming entry.
Beautiful book! My biggest challenge is shade. I have become a big fan of hostas. So many interesting ones to choose from
What a beautiful book. I moved recently from KY to AL. My English roses love the heat here but I’m struggling with dahlias. Will try again until I get it right !
What a great beautiful, surprise this morning! This book appears to be a must-have for my garden library. I would love to win it! Perfect timing with the Philadelphia Flower Show going on right now. I’m very much a novice gardener but I’m making progress! My challenge are the squirrels that ate all my spring bulbs! 😩 In spite of having a dog who loves to chase them, they won! 😖
My fav flower has to be one of the Southern favs—dahlia, hydrangea, peonies!
Thank you as always for your beautiful post.
I’m fortunate to have many lovely perennials in my yard (western PA) but I’m always trying new annuals. Keeping the deer from nibbling on just about everything is a challenge. Right now the spring bulbs are popping and my fingers are crossed that the tulips I planted this past fall survive the squirrels and rabbits:).
Since 2020, when Covid hit, I’ve been working from home and my garden has improved so much. I’m really enjoying it. What a gorgeous book! It inspires me to want to do even more. Here in Central Florida we struggle with the heat and watering enough but my biggest issue last year were the slugs! They ate every Hosta and Zinnia I planted! I tried everything but couldn’t get ahead of them. Right now the azaleas are blooming and they are magical! I have some that were transplanted from my parents home in S Florida where I grew up. Those are special to me! Thanks for the opportunity to enjoy this lovely book!
Debbie J, I am happy for you. Congratulations on winning the beautiful book. ” Private Gardens of Philadelphia”
This book is simply beautiful! My favorite flowers to grow are hydrangeas. They provide beauty both inside and outside my home. I also have a climbing red rose from my grandmother. I dug up a small part of hers and it graces my arbor. Right now, the daffodils are blooming madly. I have some planted by that same grandmother that came from her grandfather’s home. She loved gardening and flowers and passed that love to me. Southerners are known for our attachments to our history and our families. I love the actual, physical blooming of that aesthetic in my garden.
Such a beautiful book! I love to grow Lavender and Nasturtiums.
What a gorgeous book! I drool over beautiful gardens. As a gardener, my greatest challenges are not with plants, believe it or not. I battle the deer constantly. They think my garden is a salad bar! Secondly, I greatly fear the ticks and their threat of lymes disease. The amount of protection you must wear sometimes can take the pleasure out of gardening.
What a lovely way to start spring preparing and planting! Living in Philadelphia, I get an opportunity to go to the Flower Show to get tips and ideas for my garden. Favorite things to grow? Like asking me who is my favorite child! But, I admit, I am partial to dahlias and peonies.
What a gorgeous book with so many ideas to incorporate into my own landscape!
My biggest challenge in addition to keeping deer away (which so many others have mentioned !) is switching over
to total organic gardening without the chemicals to keep the bugs at bay.
My favorite flower, the simple beautiful daffodil! It announces SPRING!! I enjoy creating areas to sit & enjoy, take a break & inhale – breathe
Swoon Mary, what a gorgeous book!! I am a huge lover of flowers, but alas, my gardening skills are nil…so I appreciate and admire others talent. This book is amazing, page after page of eye candy and each garden is a work of art! 🌷🌼🌺🌸🌷
Jenna
The book has some lovely photos! My biggest garden challenge was moving from 8b to 9a zone 5 1/2 years ago. I have struggled with the climate. We are so close to the gulf that some plants are impossible to grow. I planted the Jackson Perkins Endless Summer hydrangeas and have had success with the exception of the color. I have not been able to get blue blossoms, no matter how much acidified I add to them. Sweet mint starts out strong in the spring but eventually dies from a black mold, just when you want it for mojitos.
What a beautiful book. I love gardening and we just moved to a new construction home so I am itching to create something beautiful in our blank slate of a yard. I love hydrangeas and clematis! My biggest challenge is to keep small decorative trees alive like a hydrangea tree, rose tree etc.
Wow this book is beautiful! Especially the two page photos. I have two challenges in my yard: extreme Texas heat and persistent deer that can vault easily over a fence.
What a beautiful book! I love all of your posts and refer back to them often. My greatest gardening challenging is my clay soil! My favorite flyer is lily ofnghe valley. The smell and the beauty of them make them just about perfect!
I have a few challenges , living in Northern Minnesota , gardening on a hillside & deer !! I don’t think I can pick just one favorite plant .. I love them all !!
I am very lucky that the house I have lived in for 25 years came with some shrub and perennial gardens. However the biggest challenge after years of not such great care meant it was a process of getting them back under control. Figuring out what every plant was proved challenging. Once all that was done, redesigning to make them reflect my style. Now thinking of a greenhouse and where to place it…All just plain fun and delight! Visual inspiration is what drives us forward!
Getting hydrangeas to bloom is my biggest challenge. Hydrangeas and peonies are my favorite flowers.
Wow, so much inspiration in this book!
My favorite garden flower is the Oriental Lily. I love how they bloom in the second week of July here in my NW Pa. garden when the garden really needs some energy. They are so tall and showy and of course the lovely fragrance wafting through the garden can’t be beat!
Such a gorgeous book. Could spend hours taking in its beautiful pages! Definitely going on my wish list!
Wow Mary. Such gorgeous gardens. So much talent and planning goes into making these gardens spectacular. I do love hydrangeas but only have a few. Extra water and those pesky squirrels are my problem. Thanks for sharing such a beautiful garden book.
I think your blog is so inspired.
My favorite is the hydrangea but it can be my most challenging as well. I have a difficult time replacing them, but learning that when they stop producing, it is ok to get new. Thanks for the book review. If you have never been to the Philadelphia Flower Show, it is a must see for gardeners.
My biggest challenge is discerning weeds from various planting that pop up in the Spring. As soon as I see a fresh green sprig on dirt my tendency is to think it’s a weed and pull it out before it spreads. Always a challenge to remember where everything is planted!
Perhaps that’s why hydrangeas are my favorites: no mistaking them in the Spring for a weed! Naturally, my favorite photo you posted was of the overflowing hydrangeas. Perfect place to take photos!
Good morning, Mary. The third image is stunning! I love a sneak peek at private gardens. The book looks fabulous. Choosing a favorite flower would be like choosing a favorite child (even though I only have one)! Whatever is in season is usually my favorite. Gardening is always challenging: rabbits, Japanese beetles, weeds, etc) As a fellow gardener you know very well the challenges! Lovely giveaway!
Mary, I’m excited to know of this upcoming book. My kind of reading for certain! I find visiting private gardens is always a treat, mostly for the reasons you share above. Gardeners are in general very generous and thoughtful individuals. My garden always seems to be a work in progress, but looking back at its prime, I miss the mass of rosses in my front bed and the towering redbud tree that was planted next door but once spread across our garden as well. Sadly, it is mostly lost now, so I’m considering planting a new one on my property. I have one in my lower garden that I see from the kitchen window. They are lovely when in bloom! I’m mostly a container gardener for flowers, so I’m very seasonal. When I did scatter seeds after removing the roses, the cosmos were fabulous. I’d like to grow them again. What is your favorite? My biggest challenge is our extreme heat in the summer, lack of rain, and now recently severe freezes in the winter. It’s a mess!
all so peaceful
Bridget Martinelli
What a delight to find this book today on your post! All of your posts help me stay upbeat as the snow continues to fall (more tonight!) in our short high-desert growing season… which is my biggest challenge! My greenhouse & potting shed keep me sane! Peonies & roses are my all time favorites, but whatever is “prime” in my garden could be my answer on any summer day. Thank you for ALL your beautiful photos that make long winters shorter for me!
Swoon! What a treat it would be to leaf through these pages of lush beautiful gardens! I’m like a kid in a candy store when it comes to seeing other people’s gardens! My new garden challenge is climate change. We used to have more rain and less blistering hot summers here in Oregon. You could plant your garden and the Spring rains would help it germinate and keep it watered pretty much until July and even then some. Watering the garden from the hose would mainly be an August, September chore but now I have to start watering way earlier and definitely more often. One of the things I have done to help with this is I installed the Garden In Minutes grid system for all 25 of my raised garden vegetable beds. I did this over time (years) as I kept adding raised beds. Eventually my husband put the feeder lines underground and we graveled all the pathways. I cannot water all the beds at once but this is a very water conservative and effective method that gets directly to the plants by watering at their base. However, we do not have watering systems in our yard or flowerbeds and that is a project that needs to be addressed because I am very tired of dragging around hoses in my very large yard, especially in the hot sun that we have so much more of now. I also plan on installing a collection water tank off my potting shed. Water is such a precious commodity. I’m also looking at growing more drought tolerant plants. Thank you for sharing a peek at this amazing book Mary. I would love to add it to my collection!
What a beautiful book! I have a hard time picking my favorite flowers/ plants. As each one comes into its glory I love that one. In WI my challenge is deer and lots of shade. In Florida it’s been interesting learning a totally different realm of plants and diseases and pests. Love both areas. I’ve been splitting my time between both spaces for 15 years.
Moles & gophers eating bulbs! I also cannot for the life of me grow cilantro. Vegetables aside, my favorite things to grow are all flowers–peonies, lily of the valley, freesia. No matter how bad the day, they are life affirming. Thanks for another wonderful giveaway, Mary!
What a beautiful book! My biggest garden challenges are having deer resistant plants and keeping things alive during our long, brutal summers.
While I love wildlife, they are not always well mannered in my garden. Voles eat the roots and bunnies eat the tops. Constant battle. Thankfully no deer even though we back up to the woods.
I don’t have much luck with flowers, but I enjoy growing herbs: rosemary, lavender and bee balm grow like crazy here. I also enjoy my Confederate Jasmine and the bees love it, too. Thanks for the chance to win this beautiful book!
What a beautiful book! I am originally from central PA and have spent a lot of time in Philly. I don’t understand how they are 7b as I am here in the Richmond area. There weather gets colder and while Philadelphia proper may not get a lot of snow the surrounding area does. I have not been to the Philadelphia Flower show since we left PA nearly 20 years ago but it is amazing! I would encourage anyone to go. My favorite flower ( if I must pick one…it’s like saying which child I like best) is cockscomb. In 2017 when we first moved to VA I took a tour of the gardens in Williamsburg ( another amazing place to visit) and we were allowed to gather seeds from the cockscomb. I have gathered, dried, planted and enjoyed these flowers every year since. I get so many seeds I share with anyone that wants them. I love to think about who planted the previous generations of these seeds! Peace.
What stunning shots of garden styling. Our Bradford Pear trees are now in bloom and are
car-stopping visions in white. My favorite planting is our apricot flowering quince which is
a study in understated elegance. The challenge has been keeping our soil amended for prime
performance. Thank you for your generous offer, Mary.
This book looks like a must have in my gardening book collection. Now, I know what I will be purchasing for my fellow gardeners. We love looking at beautiful gardens. Last year, the gardeners all went to the Biltmore. There gardens
where lovely. We are going to Longwood Gardens in a few months. We all are drawn to beautiful gardens. They simply make you feel happy inside to enjoy garden beauty at its finest!!
My favorite flower in the spring is the lovely primrose. In the heat of the summer I love to see my hundreds of foxglove popping up in the woods and anywhere they please. They all are different colors and it is like a seek and find when they pop up.
Oh my, Mary, those photos are swoon worthy! I was surprised by the zone that Philly’s in, too! My biggest challenges are the extreme heat in summer and plants that get eaten by critters…one day they are there, next day gone!
My biggest gardening challenge is the Texas heat! 😩
I love red geraniums in pots in the spring & early summer – until the heat fries them.
My biggest challenge is my rheumatoid arthritis and artificial knee, my favorite flowers are peonies, hydrangeas and dahlias.
What a gorgeous book.
I hope it goes to someone who will study it well, and get a chance to see, if not private gardens there, but perhaps Longwood Gardens in Philadelphia.
What an amazing collection of garden photos. I grew up north of you. Living in Florida now, I miss spring flowers. My azaleas are blooming and someday my amaryllis will bloom again, otherwise it’s green plants. I would so love to receive that book. Good luck to everyone.
I live in North Texas where our soil drainage is challenging. I have 2 flower beds on either side of my patio that I nicknamed the plant graveyard since very little would survive! Poor plants. I then visited our local botanical garden where a gardener suggested Louisiana iris. Voila! They return year after year and I just love them as they were my grandmother’s favorite also!
So lovely!
What beautiful pictures! I live in the south now but my family on both sides were all in Philadelphia. What wonderful memories this brings back. I’d love to look at each and every page of the book!
What a stunning book! My favorite plants to grow are camellias, especially the older varieties. There are so many different types and they’re great in arrangements as well as in the garden. My neighbor has an absolutely ancient one that’s huge and still in full bloom this week…sometimes I sneak a few blooms for a small vase. ;-). Have a lovely weekend!
What beautifiul inspirations for spring planting. The pictures were so calming and provided a nice respite on this gray and chilly March day!
Love your blog and look forward to reading it. My biggest challenge now is my age. After down sizing to a smaller home and yard I miss the space ,because I want every plant I see. I visit garden centers often and plant a lot in pots on my patio. My neighbors drop over and bring their friends to see my slice of paradise, which gives me great joy. A few neighbors haven even invited me over to ask me what they should do to their yard. I often tell them to buy gardening books and read everything you can get your hands on and visit garden centers and public gardens. My all time favorite flower if I had to pick one are peonies. A close second are old fashion zinnias. Happy gardening ! The best therapy in the world with the best therapist, God.
My biggest challenge in my garden is growing hydrangeas. I love, love them but for the life of me, I can substane them! My loss. The book looks wonderful!
What an incredibly beautiful book, Mary. Some lucky winner will have drool-worthy eye candy to be sure. That is wonderful of the publishers to provide this glorious soon-to-be-available photography book of lovely gardens.
I too am surprised they are in a plant zone close to yours down there! What a shocker.
Mary, thank you for sharing this beautiful book! The photos are gorgeous & inspiring. My garden brings our family much pleasure, but our greatest challenge is keeping the groundhog out of the vegetable boxes. He destroyed our lettuce crop in minutes last year. We are currently working on a way to keep him out!
I wish I knew which gardens these wonderful pictures are from as I live near Philadelphia. My biggest challenge is the house I moved in to 15 years ago is very shaded and there isn’t enough sun to do the gardening I wish I could. The person who bought my last house asked who I had taking care of all the landscaping. And the answer was me!
Happy Sunday Mary! The photographs you shared from this book are absolutely stunning! I am definitely going to have to order a copy of this beautiful book. My biggest challenge are the deer. The wind has been taken from my sails on several occasions. I will be so proud of something I have planted and nurtured only to wake up one morning and it be eaten to the ground. It is really difficult for me to choose a favorite flower. I adore so many. If I had to choose just one, it would probably be the dahlia. Thanks for sharing this lovely book with us! I hope you have a most wonderful week ahead!
Looks gorgeous, love the double page magic!
Hello, Such a lovely book, such a treat to glance through your Post. Enjoyed the book preview! Our issues are space, facing the west – sun is very intense, the beautiful deer like to munch and the rats are destructive…We love all flowers!!! Some favorites are Cosmos, Stock, Lilies, Dutch Iris, Geraniums :) Thank you for hosting this giveaway. Kindly, Christie
Thankyou for sharing!
What a beautiful book, Mary! I loved the hellebore flatlay pic. I was inspired to run out and cut my hellebores for a IG post. Hellebores have been so much fun to grow as a winter flower in a shady garden. I have three varieties and would love to have all the colors pictured in this lovely book. Bonnie
Beautiful! My favorite flowers are Heavenly Blue morning glories and peonies! There are too many others to name who come in close seconds to these two favs!
Thanks for the giveaway of this beautiful book. My favorite flowers are old time lilacs and peonies both of which have a wonderful fragrance. I have been in my home for 6 years but I’ve always worked on and had nice gardens. My yard has 2 steep slope areas which had very large old trees. Due to tree health I’ve removed 2 which has turned a densely shaded area into one that gets strong afternoon sun. Even the pachysandra ground cover is dying out. Because of the extensive roots that remain despite stump grinding trying to redo the large areas is not going well at all. Gardening is so great except for Mother Nature!
This is such a beautiful book.
Mary, Beautiful book! I’m blessed to be able to visit the Philadelphia Flower Show each year.
The 2024 show was even more spectacular if that’s possible. We also enjoy Longwood
Gardens in Kennett Square, PA and have participated in their workshops, etc.
Thank you for sharing these beautiful photos! We are blessed to live here as every
season is a horticultural joy!
Jo