Gardens

The gardens at Meadowburn are part of a private estate, and therefore are only open for public visitation during events such as Meadowburn’s Garden Open Days. The gardens are not available for drop-in visits or tours outside these events. To receive notification of future events, you can join our email list by entering your email address at the bottom of the website and clicking “join.”

Meadowburn was once the country place of Helena Rutherfurd Ely (1858-1920), a pioneering figure in American horticulture at the turn of the 20th century and founding member of the Garden Club of America.  Ely built her gardens surrounding the main residence at Meadowburn over the course of a forty-year period with the help of her loyal gardener, Albert Furman. Through trial and error she developed the practical hands-on horticultural knowledge that informed and inspired  her three widely influential books on hardy gardening. In her day, Helena Rutherfurd Ely was considered one of the premier garden experts in America and her gardens at Meadowburn were recognized as among the finest in the country.

The gardens today provide a unique opportunity to learn from Helena Rutherfurd Ely’s design and practices as an important living artifact in America’s gardening history.