Maymont is magical is just one of the best public gardens in Richmond! Since it’s only about an hour away from where I live, I decided to visit and enjoy other nearby gardener’s delights.
The grand plan
Richmond is a convenient city to get to from most of Virginia and the Atlantic seaboard. There is also train, bus and plane access. We are in the middle of the worst drought in Virginia since the 1940s. My idea was to check out how people are gardening in zone seven, which is a bit warmer than I am here in the Blue Ridge.
I started off my day with a nice visit to Minglewood Bake Shop. This vegan bakery is in Carytown near all best public gardens and provides perfect fuel for any walking in Richmond. I used to live in this neighborhood and was the only vegan I knew. So i love to stop in when I am in Richmond. They have the best oatmeal pies and lattes! Mostly, I enjoy sitting on their front porch and just watching people on Cary Street. It’s always been entertaining.
Magical Maymont
After going to Minglewood, I head to Maymont, which is one of the best (if not THE BEST) public garden in Richmond. Unlike the original family’s summer home Swannanoa near Afton, this semi-urban mansion built by the Dooleys is spectacular in every season. Though I did not visit the house, nature center, or on-site farm this time, there’s still so much to see.
Gilded gardens
A visit to this place, Maymont, is like stepping back into early last century:
According to their website, “Maymont was created in the Gilded Age by James and Sallie Dooley, who lived there from 1893 until 1925, spanning a period of remarkable economic growth and technological advances. The Dooleys bought the land in 1886, after discovering it on one of their daily horseback rides and being “struck with the beauty of the views of the river and the beautiful oaks that were on the slope of that hill,” Dooley wrote.
Because I have visited and studied Maymont for over thirty years (I used to attend nearby VCU, go Rams!), my favorite way to experience the place is on foot. I love to trek will-nilly, walking its grassy knolls and sometimes-manicured, sometimes-wild paths.
I park at the free lot on Hampton Street and walk through the stone and iron gates. This place is still magical, even if I have visited a hundred or more times.
Urban herbs
Past the stone barn is a beautiful herb knot garden which looks impeccable for this time of year. It is mid-day, and I see no gardeners around, so I cannot ask what their tips, tricks and favorite parts of Maymont are. (Those are my usual questions when I get to meet people that tend my favorite Virginia landscapes).
Head downhill from there, and you’ll arrive at the beautiful Italian Gardens.
A bit of Italy in central Virginia
I love standing right underneath the Dome here, where people like to get married.
I was asked to be part of the wedding party. As a bridesmaid, my duties would’ve included ushering Valerie down the aisle with a rousing African dance. I declined, because I was prone to early labor. I regret that decision! It was a gorgeous and fun wedding, nonetheless!
And having been in Italy last year, I can say the Italian Gardens are very authentic. It looks very much like where I was last year in Taormina, Sicily. If you can’t make it to Italy, try Richmond (and bring a local Italian fare picnic with you).
Fun scientific experiment in one or Richmond’s best public gardens
By standing right on the center, and humming. kids of all ages enjoy the interesting echo-effect. It brings back so many memories of my own kids, my first room away in college (it was also round with the same effect). And the wedding I attended for Valerie and Christian here in 1994, when I was very pregnant.
In fact, there was a little kid sitting in the center, laughing at his voice humming back at himself. So sweet!
Meadowing at Maymont
Downhill from the Italian Gardens, and past gorgeous Magnolias, Willow Oaks and Blue Cypress are what used to be very closely- mowed hills. I noticed this time they’re now letting them go to meadow. I’m sure this is appreciated by the mowers and maintenance staff, because they look very tricky and actually very dangerous to mow!
With the goldenrod and grasses, the hilly once-shorn areas now host myriad pollinators. Nice improvement, Maymont!
A place to pond-er
Down the hill, you’ll find the Japanese Garden with goldfish, and you can walk across the pond. And it is beautiful.
Because of the time of year has lacked rainfall and been exceptionally hot, the pond it also had ample duckweed in it (I think). It looked very interesting, and different than most of my past visits. I wasn’t going swimming, so the algae and altered appearance didn’t bother me.
So I just appreciated the color of the pond. The fish did not seem to mind. It’s beautiful. And whoever landscaped it originally (and currently) both did a great job.
Also, when you’re down there, you can appreciate the bald cypress and see their knobby knees come up. I always love them because they look very hobby and otherworldly.
Yet, Bald cypress is very much a native tree in this area…and always cool to see.
All right, heading back up the hill.
There’s a bamboo forest that kids like to play in, although it was a little bit dry.
Observations, changes
The waterfall was not falling. There was no water in it.
I don’t know if this is a permanent thing, or if it is just temporary for this time of year. Or if it is because there has been 50% less rainfall than we typically have in Virginia. Despite the very dry conditions, Maymont remains a beautiful and exciting place to visit.
Plans for next time
So that was my trip this time, in late July. I hope to return to enjoy the Nature Center! The Farm! The house tour! The audio tour! (I might need to plan more than just one return visit, it seems:)
But the cool thing about Maymont is that, as many times as I’ve been, there’s always something different to return for and see.
Recent events
They celebrated their 100th anniversary of being open to the public in May and will host the Richmond Jazz festival next week. With Erykah Badu and Samara Joy! (Someone…please send me a deal on tickets!!!) That will be a wonderful event, I am sure.
In the 1990s, my family and I lived next to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and we often caught summertime performances at the other side of Maymont, in Dogwood Dell. We enjoyed jazz, ballet, Shakespeare, reggae, Bio Ritmo‘s enchanting salsa music, and so much more almost every night of the week at the end of Arthur Ashe Boulevard in the wonderful ampitheater there.
Richmond has a lot of great events in additiion to the gardens and museums!
Upside/downside of my day trying to see Richmond’s best public gardens
I was going to follow this up with a tour to Lewis Ginter Gardens, where I was going to see Jesse Welles perform.
However, I decided to not visit this time. This is because the Lewis Ginter gardens have not been paying their staff a living wage, sadly. The recently- unionized gardeners have opted to strike more than once after negotiations failed.
Jesse Welles canceled his concert at Ginter. He re-scheduled at the nearby National venue, because he did not want to force his fans to have to cross the worker’s picket line to see him perform. Graham Nash was scheduled two days later and also cancelled his performance there.
A Gardener’s life
As a gardener myself, I support the workers. Because the gardens here charge a fair amount for admission to one of Richmond’s top public gardens ($24 as of this writing) and recently underwent a $31 million expansion.
Gardeners risk poison ivy, stinging bees, biting ants, poisonous snakes, extreme cold, extreme heat. And lately, we also risk being outside all day in bad air due to wildfire smoke. We cannot work remotely, or postpone many tasks required in the garden. Gardeners and farmers are our neighbors. They are the people that grow our food. They keep our public areas and gardens safe, beautiful and accessible. Gardeners are indeed essential workers. sooo…they need to be paid as such.
I hope that Lewis Ginter changes their policy, and most definitely will update and edit my article as soon as they do. And I hope to follow up with more information with my next visit to Richmond!
Alternative to more well-known (best?) public gardens in Richmond
In the past month, I have also: floated down the James and enjoyed the gardens of nearby inhabitants from both the river, and from the nearby Pony Pasture Park and Trails.
Mother Nature has done most of the landscaping here, but that is also most inspiring and relaxing, (not to mention refreshing, if you avail yourself of a nice cool river dip)!
RVA’s Fabulous Fan and Museum Districts are full of great public gardens!
Disclaimer: I am biased. I lived in both neighborhoods, as have two of my three children. But I will make the bold claim that strolls around both areas north and south of Arthur Ashe Boulevard are a delight to any gardener’s senses. You will see miniature knot gardens next to postage stamp meadow plantings and architecture spanning the late 1800s to the very-modern and recent additions onto the Virginia Museum of Fine Art.
The holidays feature everything from formal to whimsical decorations, and the personality of the people that live here really shines year ’round. I very much enjoyed pushing my kids around in a tandem stroller in the 1990s here, trying to dream up gardens I would grow in my tiny alley-side plot, and beyond.
I once found a (relatively!) huge thriving secret garden not far from this museum that is still there, thirty years later. I will not share the location here, but I do encourage you to look for it!
A park on top of a Richmond parking garage= one of the best public gardens
When I first heard what was then called “West of the Boulevard’s” beloved dog park was going to become a parking garage, I admit I cried more than a few tears. Though I no longer lived in what is now called the Museum District, and had relocated to Pungo Virginia Beach, the dog park had been fifty yards from our front door. It was the first dog park I had ever seen, in fact.
My children used to press their noses to our French Doors to watch the Chihuahuas, Pyrenees, Labradors and their people parade by after work to socialize and let the dogs jump and run and talk to their four-legged friends, too.
I hated to think of that (to me) sacred area becoming an ugly block of concrete in the midst of all the historic buildings and trees.
Creative architecture in effect
I needn’t have worried.
What once was a nice grassy area with nearby parking is now a grassy hill with a flat area at the top offering stellar views of the surrounding area, cafe tables, a fountain complete with King Neptune, a shady pergola, and native plantings full of coneflowers and rudbeckia. And every time I go? I smile because there are people walking their dogs, chatting with neighbors who may or may not also be walking their dog.
I encourage all gardeners visiting Richmond to check out the many free options available all within walking distance of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. You will discover beautiful containers, .0001-acre plots, and 100+ acres of Maymont, and the grounds of University of Richmond, with nearby Agecroft Hall and Virginia House (on my list for next time), all within a 10-15 -minute drive!
Tips for Travel while checking out some of Richmond’s best public gardens
If you plan to have a day of walking around Maymont and some of Richmond’s best public gardens, I recommend wearing comfortable walking shoes, a nice sunhat, and ample water. For a whole day, pack a cooler and picnic gear.
Park on the street in Carytown, place an order for lunch at Coppola’s Deli and get some coffee and a delicious baked good while you wait at Minglewood. Pack up your lunch in the car, then park at the 100 Spottswood Entrance at Maymont.
Walk through all you care to see (there are over 100 acres of trails and gardens there), then get your lunch and enjoy it overlooking the stream in a gazebo at Maymont, nearby Dogwood Dell, or at the park atop the garage of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
Enjoy the museums there or further strolling amongst some of the best public gardens in Richmond!