Plant Lovers Discovery Tours | The Healing Power of Gardens

Tour Philadelphia's gardens, where history and horticulture intertwine

	Progressive Women in Horticulture
	The Healing Power of Gardens
	The Art of the Garden
	Philadelphia's Historic Landscapes

Philadelphia’s Quaker founders placed a high value on gardens and saw horticulture as restorative, a way to relax, to create something with hands and mind. New scientific research also demonstrates the positive role of plants, gardening, and gardens in therapeutic settings and in promoting quality of life.

Philadelphia’s gardens and landscapes embody the multiple ways that gardens and gardening demonstrate their healing powers. The Healing Power of Gardens tour explores gardens past and present and their role in traditional medicine as well as gardens that are therapeutic to communities and landscapes that soothe the spirit.

One-day tour highlights

Physic Garden of the Pennsylvania Hospital
The first hospital in the colonies with a restored medicinal garden and the first medical library in the country

Fairmount Park
The largest city park in North America offers city dwellers instant rejuvenation in its deep woods and streams.

Shofuso
Named one of the top three Japanese gardens in the United States, this traditional contemplative house and garden delights its visitors.

The three- to five-day tours include the one-day tour sites plus:

Historic Yellow Springs
Home of 18th century spas and a restored medicinal garden

Tyler Arboretum
The largest arboretum in the Northeast is home to a traditional medicinal herb garden and 150-year-old trees planted by its original Quaker owners.

Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania
Nationally known contemporary medicinal plant collection and home of one of the few remaining Victorian ferneries

Philadelphia Green’s neighborhood gardens
Living proof of the positive effects of green on the urban scene

Healing Gardens of Friends Hospital
Founded in 1813 and one of many Philadelphia healing institutions that incorporate gardens and gardening into patient care

Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve
Where you can learn about the traditional therapeutic uses of native plants

The East Conservatory at Longwood Gardens
Whatever the weather the newly restored conservatory and its wonderful collection of plants intermixed with waterfalls and pools offer visitors a healing respite from everyday stress.

“.Thank you for including us on your inspiring tour. John and I were both fascinated…part of the charm of the experience, for me, was not having to navigate an unfamiliar city to find the locations.” – Linda Nitchman, “The Heartland Gardener”