LADEW TOPIARY GARDENS

Although the address for the Gardens is in Baltimore County, the gardens themselves lie across the county line in Harford County. Harry Ladew, a wealthy, self-taught gardener, hunt enthusiast, and artist, created the gardens after becoming captivated by the topiary gardens of England. Ladew foxhunted there during the winter season, spending time in aristocratic country houses and gardens. Seeking to create a similar environment at home, he purchased a farmstead adjacent to the Elkridge-Harford Hunt Club and began his decades-long quest to create one of the nation’s most outstanding topiary gardens. The 22-acre site ranges from large-scale designed landscapes to intimate specialty gardens and “garden rooms,” with a main axis extending 1,100 feet from the house’s Terrace Garden, across the Great Bowl and Oval Pool, to the Temple of Venus garden folly. To the west are themed gardens and a croquet court, and to the north, the topiary Sculpture Garden. Running perpendicular is a cascading stream with aquatic plants and pond. The rear of the house overlooks the wildflower meadow, with the Hunt Scene topiary gardens to the south.

When acquired, the antiquated farmhouse consisted of a c. 1850 Greek Revival main block with a c. 1750 south wing. Famed interior decorators Billy Baldwin, Jean Levy, and Ruby Ross Wood led an extensive interior remodeling while architect James W. O’Connor designed a Colonial Revival hyphen and wing. The wing contains the widely admired Oval Library and the hyphen, the Elizabethan Room transplanted from England. In 1976, Ladew established an organization to maintain the site and open it to the public.