Museum of the Shenandoah Valley

The Gardens

The Museum's Living Collection

Over 400 hybrid tea rose bushes grace the Glen Burnie Gardens.

 

Note

You can rent the gardens for your private special event. For details click here.

 

QuickFact

In addition to the devoting himself to the care and creation of the Glen Burnie Gardens, the late Curator of Gardens R. Lee Taylor (1924-2000) was a nationally-known collector of miniature houses. Come see his amazing collection of miniature houses and rooms on display.

The six acres of gardens surrounding the Glen Burnie Historic House were created beginning in 1956 and evolved over the latter half of the twentieth century. Today the museum maintains this living collection in a manner that is sympathetic to the garden creators’ vision for this landscape.

The museum gardens invite discovery and support formal entertaining. Outstanding aspects of the collection include two crab apple Allées, the majestic Grand Allée, and the intimate Pleached Allée.  Boxwood plantings factor highly in the landscape and were used to create a Parterre Garden and Knot Garden; the museum is in the process of a boxwood rejuvenation project to revive these and other boxwood plantings throughout the site.

The gardens also contain significant Rose Gardens that are comprised of nearly four hundred fifty individual plants. The Perennial Garden presents flowers planted in mirroring patterns, with varieties of dahlias providing fall interest.

The Vegetable Garden is also interesting, and is planted in a formal pattern that changes annually. Finally, the living collection also includes trout in the Water Garden pond, and Chinese Geese who hold court near the natural stream on site.