Mount Gulian Hosts Great Estates Garden Tours

Visitors will learn about the garden's origins, evolution, and notable gardeners, including Mary Anna Verplanck, who, as a precocious 11-year-old, designed the original 1804 garden, and James F. Brown, an enslaved man who fled Maryland and worked as Mount Gulian’s master gardener as a free man. Visitors will receive a complimentary copy of the garden’s 1912 map, and a short film about Mr. Brown, "Cultivating Freedom: From Slave to Citizen," will be shown.

Tours will begin at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Today, notable plantings in the garden include antique peonies, roses and yuccas which were returned to Mount Gulian in 1995 by a Verplanck descendant who removed them from the site in the 1960s. After carefully tending to them for 30 years at her home’s garden, she learned of the plans to restore the garden at Mount Gulian and happily brought them home.

Reservations are preferred but walk-ins will be accepted if space allows. For reservations, call (845) 831-8172 or email info@mountgulian.org. Payment may be made on the day of visit.