Page 43 - The Hunt - Fall 2021
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they didn’t fit with the landscape narrative that the new Hagley Museum wanted to tell at the time, about the history of the powder mills,” says Paul Orpello, Hagley’s director of gardens and horticulture. “The garden entered a state of abandon. It was looked at as a nuisance.”
Landscape architect Nelson Byrd Woltz has prepared a plan to resurrect the unique gem on the banks of the Brandywine. Orpello and his team must roll back
50 years. As overgrowth is removed, thousands of once- dormant bulbs have begun to slowly reappear. If plans go as hoped, this lost oasis will be fit for discovering again, joining the gardens of Henry, Pierre and Alfred as a treasured horticultural stop in the Brandywine Valley.
Visit hagley.org.
While the garden isn’t easily classified, it’s based loosely
on some of the architectural features the couple had witnessed on trips to Rome. Its plantings recall English gardens
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