Garden Fling: Botanical Beauty Beckons on Breathtaking Trip

What do you call a long weekend with 80+ women (and about 10 men) all visiting gardens, photographing gardens, posting about gardens, and talking about gardens? You call it The Fling. This year the Fling (for garden bloggers, influencers, writers, columnists, photographers, garden media, etc.) was in and around America’s Garden Capital, Philadelphia, Thursday-Sunday, September 21-24, 2023.

I loved this year’s logo – a tulip that’s an upside-down Liberty Bell. Each fling has a different identity – Flingers collect a button each year.

The attendees

There were 100+ gardeners from 26 states (and DC!), four countries and three continents. It was four great days of touring 15 world-class gardens. Thanks to Karl Gercens, Janet Zargan Ledebuhr, Teresa Speight, and Tropical Storm Ophelia, for making it memorable.

This is essentially the same group that came to Buffalo in 2010. I’ve met up with them in Chicago, Asheville, Austin, and Toronto. I missed Madison, Denver, Capital Region, Minneapolis, Portland, Seattle, and San Fransisco.

The Fling

This year’s fling was in the Philadelphia, PA area – rightfully self-titled America’s Garden Capital. Any city on earth would love to have Longwood Gardens, Chanticleer, and the Philadelphia Flower Show in its pocket, not to mention many other great garden parks and world-class private gardens.

Here we are in the rain at Swarthmore College dying to see the Scott Arboretum.

America’s Garden Capital

The Garden Bloggers Fling began in spring 2008 as a meet-up for garden bloggers across the U.S. traveling to gardens in Austin, TX. It soon became a must-attend, blogger-run, annual event (paused only by the pandemic) hosted by organizers in a different city each year. Today The Fling has grown – while its name has shortened – to include content creators across the international online garden media – garden writers, YouTubers, bloggers, podcasters, influencers, garden professionals, and educators with strong public social media followings.

Here’s a rundown of our tours.

Longwood Gardens Production Facility (Thursday)

1001 Longwood Rd, Kennett Square, PA
A tour of the production facility was eye-opening. Plants are grown and can spend two years or more before they are moved to be displayed in the glasshouses of Longwood. Great balls of flowers move slowly along a track 20 feet in the air to ensure equal light distribution, espaliered fruiting citrus trees, variegated Christmas cacti, twisted trees of flowers, standards of lantana, Christmas trees of chrysanthemums being worked on by elves, all these, and tens of thousands of plants more, gave off a Willie Wonka factory vibe.

Longwood Gardens (Thursday)

1001 Longwood Rd, Kennett Square, PA.
I’ll eventually do a separate post on Longwood. This is just a smattering of the photos I took. We had dinner here in the beer garden and VIP seating for the lighted fountain show in the evening. Longwood is in a special category of garden – up there with Disney. As Fling organizer, and Longwood Gardens Conservatory Manager, Karl told us, when you come to Longwood at any time the gardens are at peak. The displays are timed and changed out so often that there will always be something new. It’s not the type of garden you visit and say, “You should have seen it last week,” or “In two weeks it’ll look great!” It is at its best when you are there.

Belvidere (Friday)

The garden of Andrew Bunting of Fine Garden Creations, Exton, PA.
Rustic and rich, creative with a patina of age and experience.

Hedgeleigh Spring (Friday)

The garden of Charles Cresson in Swarthmore, PA.
Grand landscape design on a small(ish) property.

Create a Scene (Friday)

The garden of Michael Bowell & Simple in Malvern, PA.
Creative and crafty, loose and casual. Hot tub in a greenhouse? My kinda’ place!

Boulder Haven (Friday)

The garden of Carol Verhake of Lasting Landscapes in Berwyn, PA.
Like a walk in the woods with sexy and clever garden features throughout. I am now on a search for the columnar sugar maple, Acer saccharum ‘Monumentale’.

Chanticleer (Friday)

786 Church Road, Wayne, PA
I’ll do a separate post on Chanticleer. It deserves its own post! We ended the day here with dinner at food stations around the gardens, live music, dancing, and an ice cream truck for dessert. This garden has been on my hit list for years. It did not disappoint. If I could design a public garden it would look like this.

Edgewood (Saturday)

The garden of John Lonsdale in Exton, PA.
A lesson in how to do hillside gardens. And multiple greenhouses of cyclamen in bloom.

Brandywine Cottage (Saturday)

The garden of horticulturalist and garden book author David L. Culp in Downington, PA.
Definitely a garden that “stays with you.” Two acres of gardens and artful garden vignettes surround a 1790s farmhouse. On a rainy day it was even more charming.

Wyneden (Saturday)

The garden of Wayne Guymon in Chadd’s Ford, PA.
Modern, sleek, and creative on a grand scale. There’s a heavenly hill of hostas – more than I’ve ever seen together at one time overlooking a managed pond that would give Monet a run for his money.

Terrain (Saturday)

Garden center & lifestyle store in Glens Mills, PA.
Had to do some window shopping. You can’t take 100+ gardeners someplace without a garden center shopping trip. After all, that’s why we brought two big buses with storage compartments underneath. The best part was finding the book American Roots: Lessons and Inspiration from the Designers Reimagining Our Home Gardens by Nick McCullough, Allison McCullough, and Teresa Woodard (Timber Press, 2022) with Fling attendee Erin Schanen on the cover.

Owl Creek Farm (Saturday)

The garden of Steve & Ann Hutton in West Chester, PA
A fine garden with no detail overlooked. It was certainly the most colorful residential garden of the weekend. Formal, yet flowy, the garden, grounds, and architecture meshed perfectly.

Stoneleigh, A Natural Garden (Saturday)

1829 East County Line Road, Villanova, PA
We had a sit-down dinner for 100, door prizes from sponsors, and the announcement of next year’s Fling to take place in the Puget Sound Area of Washington State. This (new) old garden has only been open to the public since 2016. Extraordinary trees and shrubs, this garden of mainly native plants delivers awe around almost every corner. It’s an inspiration for garden designers. Free admission and free parking should make this a must see for anyone traveling to Philadelphia to visit gardens.

Scott Arboretum at Swarthmore College (Sunday)

500 College Avenue, Swarthmore, PA
I wasn’t sure what to expect with an arboretum on a college campus – often it just means there are labeled trees to enjoy and learn about. This is not just a collection of significant trees, but trees that are used to complement the spaces they’re in. The stunning amphitheater was closed for construction, and looked like a druid party spot. There were also pocket gardens throughout the campus and art in the “woods.” It was a treat to see the gardens complement the contemporary architecture especially.

Northview (Sunday)

The garden of garden educator, historian, and book author, Jenny Rose Carey in Ambler, PA.
This was my favorite garden of the weekend, aside from the public ones. Creative, crafty. clever and sometimes kooky. I could have spent all weekend here. I will be studying my photos for a ling tome to see what I can incorporate into my own garden. I intend to outright steal those terracotta hanging cone pots as soon as I can find their source.

MillFleurs (Sunday)

The garden of Barbara Tiffany in Point Pleasant, PA.
Barbara HAS to be the Grande Dame of Philadelphia gardening. The ultimate hostess. What a presence! Just as stately is the grist and sawmill was derelict when she and husband, furniture designer Robert, bought the property in 1993. Robert’s public furniture benches punctuate throughout the garden. Barbara’s got a thing for variegated plants – trees, shrubs, and perennials. Parts of the garden just glowed in the rainy overcast setting. The only thing to make this garden better was homemade cookies and warm cider. She’d thought of that too.

Paxson Hill Farm (Sunday)

The gardens and nursery and garden center of Bruce Gangawer in New hope, PA.
This was more of a sculpture park than anything else. But it was also a perennial nursery. And a garden center. And also the owners home was onsite. It checked a lot of boxes. Aside from a fun hobbit house, it felt like walking through an art gallery. A sloshy, wet gallery.

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